The Access to Information Programme releases the English translation of its annual report Access to Information Programme in Bulgaria 2014 (pdf).
The fifteenth AIP annual report contains:
- analysis of the proposed draft amendments to the Access to Public Information Act (APIA) with regard to the transposition of the Directive 2013/37/EU on the Re-use of Public Sector Information;
- analysis of the results from the 2015 AIP audit on active disclosure of public information online by the executive bodies;
- analyses of the access to information cases referred to AIP for legal help and consultation during 2014;
- an overview of the developments in the FOI litigation in 2014, including summaries of cases in which AIP has provided court representation.
For the first time, the AIP annual report contains no recommendations for legislative amendments. The reasons are:
Firstly, AIP published a Concept Paper on Amendments for the Access to Public Information Legislation in the beginning of 2015. The Concept Paper is based on the results of a 2014 nationwide public consultation with different interested groups and contains specific recommendations for overcoming identified problems in the APIA implementation.
Secondly, in the summer of 2014, a working group at the Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies, and Communications was formed with the mandate to draft amendments to the Bulgarian legislation regarding the transposition of the revised Directive 2013/37/EU on the Re-use of Public Sector Information. AIP experts were invited to take part in the working group and presented AIP statement. Part of the recommendations which AIP made within the working group were taken into consideration and included in the texts of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Access to Public Information Act.
However, one of the main AIP recommendations – the establishment of an oversight body to coordinate and control the implementation of the Access to Public Information Act– was not supported.
The Bill was introduced in the National Assembly on April 29, 2015. AIP presented its statement at the sessions of the four responsible parliamentary committees in May 2015. The first reading of the Bill in the Parliament is still pending.
The authors of the report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2014 are Gergana Jouleva, Alexander Kashumov, Darina Palova, Kiril Terziiski, Stephan Anguelov and Fany Davidova.
Access to Information in Bulgaria 2015, Access to Information Programme, 2015, p. 180, ISSN 1314-0523
The report is prepared within the project Civil Center for Support of Transparency in Public Life, supported with a grant by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.