In focus in Bulgarian legislation
Bill of the Administrative Procedure Code as of 24.09.2015
What do the proposed changes in the bill provide?
- Acceleration of the administrative justice by focusing the process of proving only in the first instance and by emphasizing on the requirement for implementation of comprehensive written evidences to the complaint and exhaustion of the evidentiary claims in the appeal.
- An opportunity for the court to stop the preliminary execution, admitted under a special law.
- Removal of the panel of seven members in proceedings for cancelation in order to avoid imperfections in the operation, including difficulties in its formation.
- Introduction of fast deadlines for scheduling of cases.
- Introduction of the principle of the closed meeting at cassation appeal, but with a number of important exceptions.
- An opportunity for imposing of security measures in enforcement proceedings also on other administrative authorities is provided, except on the debtor in enforcement order, which protects the interests of the citizens and the organizations to a greater extent.
- A radically change of the mode of the communications is provided. Firstly, it provides much more substantial introduction of the electronic identification and the electronic communications. At the same time the rights of the citizens who do not have Internet access, are respected. The communications are governed individually, as the calling is treated only as a specific type of communication. The notification for already ruled acts of the decisive authorities will be done through their delivery, wherever possible and practically grounded, and not through communications for their preparation.
- A change of the starting point is provided, from which the period for appealing the decision of the assigner under the Law on Public Procurement for initiation of the procedure runs.
The Code proposes also a number of other changes, which reflect the jurisprudence, doctrine, the recommendations and suggestions of authoritative judges.
News on European Union Law
Directive (EU) 2015/1513 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 amending Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources is published in the EU Official Journal – L239 15.09.2015 and according to its recital 14 “a great use of electricity from renewable sources is a means of addressing many of the challenges in the transport sector as well as in other energy sectors. It is therefore appropriate to provide additional incentives to stimulate the use of electricity from renewable sources in the transport sector and to increase the multiplication factors for the calculation of the contribution from electricity from renewable sources consumed by electrified rail transport and electric road vehicles so as to enhance their deployment and market penetration. Furthermore, it is appropriate to consider further measures to encourage energy efficiency and energy savings in the transport sector.”