Institutionalisation of the protection of competition in
the Republic of Bulgaria
The
normative provisions of relations within the scope of competition protection
are included mainly in the Protection of Competition Act (promulgated in issue
52 of the State Gazette of May 5, 1998, effective as of July 5, 1999) and in
the State Aids Act (“The SAA”) (promulgated in issue 28 of the State Gazette of
March 19, 2002 and enforced as of June 20, 2002). Of great assistance in the interpretation
and application of the provisions of the said acts are the
practices of the regulatory body, the Commission for Protection of Competition
(“CPC”) and of the Supreme
Administrative Court (“SAC”).
The existing Protection of Competition Act (“PCA”) revoked the former Protection of Competition Act effective until July
5, 1999, and adopted by Parliament on May 2, 1991.
Since its adoption, certain of its provisions have been amended
and supplemented as in May 1998, the adoption date, Republic of Bulgaria was not invited
to start negotiations for accession to the European Union. The legal norms of
the act before these changes reflected the development of European legislation
as at the end of 1997. Bulgaria started talks on the Competition Policy chapter
in the beginning of March,
2001. Therefore, great part of amendments and supplementations to PCA
were adopted in 2002 and 2003 and were necessitated following the adoption of
basic principles of antitrust legislation and control over state aids by the
Bulgarian legislation.
Pursuant
to the legal regulation of competition protection in Bulgaria, CPC is assigned the
basic role of a regulatory body.
According to article 3 PCA, CPC
is an independent specialised state body receiving
budget support. It is a legal entity having its headquarters in Sofia. The Commission consists of
seven persons – a chairman, two deputy chairmen and four members elected and
discharged by Parliament for a period of five years. They can be re-elected for
another five years. The chairman of the Commission must be a qualified lawyer
with experience in the field of not less than ten years. Members of the Commission
may be Bulgarian citizens with higher juridical or economic education and with experience
of not less than five years. According to PCA, Commission members and the
chairman should possess high professional and moral qualities and should not
have been convicted for premeditated crime of a general nature. They cannot
assume other paid occupation except when they practice scientific or lecturing
activities, as well as to gain benefit in any form whatsoever from enterprises.
The authorities of the chairman, the deputy chairmen and members of the Commission
shall be terminated by Parliament before expiration of their mandate upon their
request; when they are convicted to prison for premeditated crime of a general
nature; for failure to exercise their duties for more than six months; for
incompatibility with the requirements stated above having
occurred after the
election; and in case of death. Upon occurrence of any circumstance for a
pre-term release of a CPC
member, the chairman shall inform Parliament in due time. When the said
circumstance refers to the chairman, notification can be made by any member of
the Commission. In case of pre-term termination of Commission member
authorities, Parliament shall, within one month, elect a new member until the
end of the original mandate.