What is RIA?

RIA is a complex practical and analytical mechanism for examining the likely effects of planned or completed actions of public regulatory intervention. It is a reliable toolkit for increasing the quality of normative acts and public policies by examining the social, economic, environmental and other effects of their implementation.

The three letters РИА have no meaning of their own in Bulgarian; they are a direct transcription of the English acronym RIA, the widespread abbreviation for Regulatory Impact Assessment. In Bulgarian these three words are translated in different ways, one of the most popular and best adapted translations being Оценка на въздействието на законодателството (ОВЗ).

According to the 2016 Law on Normative Acts, “the impact assessment examines the relationship between the formulated objectives and the expected (achieved) results.” The Council of Ministers’ Ordinance on the Scope and the Methodology for Carrying out Impact Assessment adds that it is “an instrument for increasing the quality of normative acts by examining the social, economic, environmental and other effects of their implementation, including on small and medium-sized enterprises, non-governmental organisations and citizens”.