The data from the latest study of the legislative activity of the National Assembly, conducted by the Library, Information and Research Parliamentary Center to the legislative body, covering the bills submitted during the period 11 November 2024 – 11 August 2025 which are subject to impact assessment, indicate that the distribution among the subjects with the right of legislative initiative for the period is as follows: 75.7% of the bills were submitted by members of parliament – individually or as a group – and 24.3% were submitted by the Council of Ministers.
This means several things:
- The National Assembly continues to be the “fast track” through which 3/4 of the most important normative acts in the country, such as laws, are passed easily and smoothly;
- The anomalous shift of the legislative initiative from the Council of Ministers to the members of parliament, foreseen by no one and resulting from the regulatory reform, with the aim of circumventing the law, remains in full force;
- The regulatory reform in Bulgaria is ineffective because it covers no more than 1/4 of the draft proposals for changes to the current legislation.
The combination of the above has led to unprecedented distortions of the legislative process, in which members of parliament, without any sense of responsibility, shame or embarrassment, allow themselves, in front of the whole of society, to adopt a draft law in a parliamentary committee in less than 30 seconds.
All this has resulted in a massive loss of confidence among Bulgarians, not just in one body or institution such as the National Assembly, but in the entire “system”. This means a complete rejection of, and resignation towards, not just the state as a set of institutions, but a refusal to recognise the legitimacy of its actions and acts, including the most important of them, such as laws.
Against this background, in the spring of 2025 the Bulgarian government, by Decision No. 175 of the Council of Ministers of 21.03.2025, adopted a document unique in our history, entitled Concept for the Development of the Regulatory Policy of the Republic of Bulgaria 2025 – 2027. According to its annotation, the concept was prepared in response to the recommendations of the Regulatory Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Its adoption aims to improve the rule-making process, reduce the administrative burden, encourage the use of alternative and flexible regulatory approaches, improve law enforcement, etc.
The main drawback of the concept is that from the outset it cannot solve the general problem demonstrated above, related to the circumvention of the law by members of parliament – submitters of bills, which undermines the effectiveness of the regulatory reform as a whole, because it applies solely and exclusively to the draft proposals of the Council of Ministers.