Bulgaria's Parliament 'Adopts Too Many Laws' - Study

Bulgarian lawmakers have passed one bill on average for the last six years, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, one of the four big organizations of employers, and a legal affairs think-tank, have said.

In a recent analysis, the BIA and the Center for Legislative Evaluation and Legislative Initiatives (CLELI) have compared the figure to the situation in countries such as the United Kingdom, where 31.5 bills are passed on a yearly basis, compared to 137 in the Southeastern European Nation.

However, as many as 1628 bills have been submitted to Bulgaria's Parliament between 2010 and 2015. Of these, 792 (less than half) have been approved, and a quarter have not even been debated at a parliamentary committees - the BIA and CLELI interpret the statistics as a sign more than 50% of lawmakers' work yields no results, and public resources for the National Assembly are being used in an ineffective manner.

The unequal treatment of bills depending on their authors is also an issue of concern: a law submitted by the government is highly unlikely to be rejected, less than a third of those initiated by lawmakers have been rejected.

Separately, bills are often tabled wihtout any previous assessment of their impact, a step required by the law.

Not all changes are made available online for a public debate, the report also reads.

The Energy Act (12 times) and Public Procurement Act (9 times) and the Labor Code (10 times) have been the most frequently edited over the past six years.

In an interview with private news channel Evropa, Petar Kyosev (CLELI) said on Tuesday the frequent piecemeal amendment of legislation creates an unpredictable business environment. 

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