PartnersLocal Government and public Service Reform Initiative (LGI)
|
Ex-ante Policy Impact Assessment in Bulgaria
Ex-ante Policy Impact Assessment in Bulgaria Legal background The Law on Normative Acts (1973) sets out the rules of forming legislation, including a requirement to accompany all bill proposals with a rational when submitting it to the parliament. Essential aspects of this accompanying document is a financial reasoning (similar to cost benefit analysis) and the need for intra-governmental coordination and consultation. The introduction of Regulatory Impact Assessment in the country is a result of serious civil society and NGO initiation and pressure on the government. The Institute for Market Economics, a private think tank organisation since 1997 has been active in monitoring the results re better regulation and drafts laws. This has resulted the Act on Restricting Administrative Regulation and Control on Business Activities (passed in June 2003). The act requires government to notify companies of future regulation and provide them with at least one month to file any objections. Furthermore a new licensing or registration system can only be brought into effect through an act to parliament accompanied by a detailed reasoning. The Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers and its administration, adopted with CoM Decree Nr. 216/12 October 2005, has ordered the establishment of a Directorate for Strategic Planning and Governance which is primarily responsible supporting impact assessments for draft strategies, policies. Institutional background Regulatory Impact Assessment was not started as a government initiative in Bulgaria, but as a think tank initiative. The Institute for Market Economics started to work with one committee in the parliament in 1998. Due to different reasons (like initiation from the civil society, motivation of joining the European Union and some donor and international organizations’ pressure) there are several positive measures towards progress in implementing policy impact assessment in the country. The coordination process has become more transparent – as ministries already publicize their drafts on their respective websites in order to welcome inputs from the stakeholders. The efficiency of the weekly meetings of the secretaries general of the ministries has also improved in line with an increasing responsibility of secretaries general for the coordinated policy output of their ministries. The Council of Ministers’ staff is also regularly involved in working groups preparing ministry materials, and the Prime Ministers Office has also been strengthened in order to receive items for review and comment prior to meetings of the CoM. Ministries are required to attach financial impact assessment to each policy proposal. Formally this requirement is strictly enforced, however the quality and the depth of these impact assessments are questionable. With the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers and its administration, adopted with CoM Decree Nr. 216/12 October 2005 a Directorate for Strategic Planning and Governance has been established. According to the Rules of Procedure the Strategic Planning and Governance Directorate inter alia has to: propose standards for drafting strategies and sectoral policies consistent with the European practices; coordinate the development of the governance programme of the CoM and report for the activities to the political cabinet of the Prime-Minister; coordinate and control the correspondence of the strategies drafted by the ministries with the priorities of the CoM governance programme; assist the administrations for carrying out impact assessment in drafting the strategies; support the powers of the CoM in realizing the general governance of the public administration and for the establishment of the necessary administrative structures for the implementation of the Government priorities and develop and manage programmes for the modernization of the state governance financed by EU and other donor funds. Relevant Areas of Impact Assessment Fiscal Environmental moving towards integrated IA according to EC requirements Related Activities In the frame of PHARE Small Projects Programme of the European Union, seminar on implementation of regulatory impact assessment – best practices in Europe was held between 8 – 11 june, 2004 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Existing guidelines Content to be uploaded Documents, links
|
 |
Copyright © 2009
United Nations Development Programme Information Disclosure Policy |
