Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on "Bulgaria on the road to accession (Own-Initiative Opinion)"
Date: 2001-07-11
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Bulgaria, accession to the European Union

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Official Journal of the European Communities

17.9.2001

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on ‘Bulgaria on the road to accession (Own-
Initiative Opinion)’

(2001/C 260/12)

On 13 July 2000, the Economic and Social Committee, acting under Rule 23(3) of its Rules of Procedure,
decided to draw up an opinion on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for External Relations, which was responsible for preparing the Committee’s work on the
subject, adopted its opinion on 28 June 2001. The rapporteur was Mr Etty.

At its 383rd plenary session on 11 and 12 July 2001 (meeting of 11 July 2001), the Economic and Social
Committee adopted the following opinion by 117 votes to one, with one abstention.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
Bulgaria has experienced a particularly difficult start to
its transition towards a market economy as well as towards
democracy after the downfall of the Communist regime.
For several years, serious political and economic instability
prevailed. In 1997, decisive steps towards getting the latter
under control were made by the adoption of a currency board
agreement at the proposal of the International Monetary Fund.
In the same year, the country elected its first Government since
1989 which succeeded in completing a full mandate of four
years.

1.2.
In addition to major problems of a domestic nature,
the country and its neighbours have had to face the conse-
quences of the Kosovo war. External factors, in particular the
instability of the Balkan region, continue to be a handicap for
Bulgaria’s development. Hopes and expectations that
the
Stability Pact could help to remedy these negative influences
have remained unfulfilled.

1.3.
In last year’s Progress Report, the European Com-
mission noted progress towards meeting the Copenhagen
economic criteria for the first time. The International Monetary
Fund Article IV Consultation and Fifth Review Report on
Bulgaria for the year 2000 also contained a cautious positive
assessment as regards the country’s economic performance.
Several key indicators show marked progress (growth GDP,
growth of exports, reduction external debt) and it was noted
that the Government was getting inflation under control.
Privatisation is considered to be well under way.

1.3.1.
On the other hand, persistent weaknesses are ident-
ified as regards, for instance, serious shortcomings of the
judicial and administrative system, corruption and the effects
of these factors on the general business climate.

1.3.2.
Bulgaria’s progress in the economic field has not
resulted in alleviating the — very low — standard of living,
high unemployment (officially close to 20 %, with vast regional
differences) and poverty.

The recent parliamentary elections seem to have con-
1.4.
firmed the stability of Bulgaria’s young democracy. However,
the success of the National Movement for Simeon II and the
clear defeat of both the ruling Union of Democratic Forces and
the oppositional Bulgarian Socialist Party could very well be
interpreted, as several observers have done, as an expression
of lack of trust in politicians and political parties. It remains to
be seen whether or not the new Government will be able to
change this. If that will not be the case, the country might be
heading once again for an uncertain future.

1.5.
The opening of negotiations with the European Union
on membership in February 2000 was the realisation of a
major ambition of post-Communist Bulgaria. Progress made
vis-à-vis the political and economic criteria of Copenhagen
and with respect to the adoption of the European acquis has
been recorded by the European Commission in its Regular
Report on progress towards accession.

1.6.
This Opinion will take the Commission’s findings as a
basis for its own assessment of the role organised civil society,
and in particular economic and social
is
playing in Bulgaria’s preparation for EU-membership.

interest groups,

1.7.
Both the Government of Bulgaria and the EU have
expressed their interest in an active role of organised civil
society on either side in the accession process. The Joint
Consultative Committee EU-Bulgaria, set up under the Associ-
ation Agreement between the EU and Bulgaria, has tried to
strengthen that role since January 1999. It has done so, not
only by analysing problems of mutual interest but also by
establishing and activating a network of contacts in Bulgaria
and in Brussels. The latter does not only include the relevant
services of the European Commission and the Association
Council, but also the major European federations of economic
interest groups. With the Joint Parliamentary
and social
Committee for Bulgaria working contacts have been estab-
lished.

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1.8.
Already before the Helsinki European Council, the
Government consulted the interest groups on major economic
and social policy issues.

1.10.2.
There are two major national trade-union feder-
ations: the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in
Bulgaria (KNSB) and the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa.

1.8.1.
Immediately after the decision of Helsinki to open
negotiations on membership with Bulgaria, it has established
special consultation machinery to involve organised civil
society in its preparations for accession. This includes:

— inter-departmental working groups for the preparation
of Government position papers and policies regarding
the various chapters of the acquis in which the economic
and social interest groups can participate;

— a Co-ordinating Council for European integration, chaired
by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for
European Integration and the International Financial
Institutions; major economic and social interest groups
as well as other Non-Governmental Organisations have
been invited to participate;

— access to particular meetings or working groups for some
40 NGOs and research institutes which have jointly set
up a ‘European Forum’. Members of the Forum which
want to make a contribution to the preparation of the
Government’s negotiating positions can participate at
request.

1.8.2.
The Government’s stated purpose of all this is to
create greater transparency of the negotiation process, to
improve democratic control, and to create better conditions
for effective implementation.

In addition to the consultation structures created by
1.9.
the Government, Parliament has set up a Commission for
European Issues for fast-track legislation related to the Euro-
pean acquis. This Parliamentary Commission can also consult
economic and social interest groups.

1.10.
It is relatively clear who the Government’s major
partners for consultation are as regards employers’ and work-
ers’ organisations.

The four organisations mentioned take an active
in consultations. The BIA, KNSB and Podkrepa are

1.10.3.
part
represented on the JCC EU-Bulgaria.

1.10.4.
The situation is more complicated as regards other
interest groups. This is in particular true in the field of
agriculture. According to the Government,
it is consulting
more than 70 organisations in this sector. However, none of
the five national
federations (some of which with large
membership) are among them: The Bulgarian Farmers’ Associ-
ation, the Union of Agricultural Co-operatives, the Bulgarian
Chamber of Agriculture, the Central Co-operative Union, and
the Young Farmers’ Association (which is a section of the
Bulgarian Farmers’ Association). These organisations are also
not represented at the JCC EU-Bulgaria.

1.10.5.
There is one major independent national consumers
organisation: the Federation of Consumers in Bulgaria (FCB).
Two years ago the Bulgarian National Consumers Association
(BNCA) was established, originating in the (then) Ministry for
Tourism and Trade. All the major economic and social interest
groups represented on the JCC EU-Bulgaria have questioned
the independent character of the BNCA.

1.10.6.
Of the groups to be represented on the newly
established Economic and Social Council (See Appendix I),
craftsmen, professionals, environmental organisations and
organisations of disabled are presently not part of the EU-
Bulgaria JCC.

2. The Consultation process, some general points

2.1.
Genuine consultation on economic and social policy is
something new for Bulgaria. This must be taken into account
when evaluating consultation practices with regard to
accession so far. Under the old regime, the so-called economic
and social interest groups were mere mouthpieces of the party
and the political elite. Though today’s Government
is a
democratically elected one, their views of interest groups and
their expectations of value-added by consulting them may still
be coloured by the more than forty years’ old culture of the
Communist past.

On the employers’ side the Bulgarian Industrial
1.10.1.
Association (BIA) and the Bulgarian Chamber of Trade and
Industry (BCTI) are the major federations at the national level.
Most individual enterprises are affiliated to both. That is also
the case as regards members of organisations bringing together
small and medium-sized enterprises, small artisan businesses,
as well as big business.

to a certain degree be prisoners of

2.2. Many representatives of the interest groups, similarly,
will
the past. One
cannot expect employers’ federations, trade unions, consumers’
associations, organised farmers, etc. to function already in the
same way as their colleagues in countries with a long tradition
of democracy and tripartite and bipartite dialogue.

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2.3.
Interest groups in Bulgaria may presently be much
more politicised than their counterparts in the EU which are,
of course, all but ‘politically neutral’, but as a rule free from
and independent of political parties and/or the Government.

Agriculture will do, there seems to be sufficient basis now to
draw some cautious interim conclusions. It is too early yet to
identify trends, but it will be important to try and do that at a
later stage.

Any effort to evaluate the functioning of the consul-
2.3.1.
tation process, and the role the economic and social interest
groups can play in expressing the views and concerns of their
members as well as in involving them in the implementation
of the European acquis, must take this background fully into
account.

Furthermore, it should be acknowledged that such
2.3.2.
an evaluation only makes sense if
the results are being
compared with those obtained in other Candidate Member
States.

2.4.
Against this general background assessment, a basic
observation to be made about the consultation process is that
Bulgaria’s future membership of the EU is a consensus issue.
All the major political parties are of the opinion that there is
no alternative to accession for Bulgaria. There is only a very
limited public debate on accession, and it appears that all those
concerned consider this to be positive.

This might reflect rather a general

2.4.1.
feeling that
meeting the standards set by the European acquis is rather a
legal and administrative exercise than consensus building
regarding the content of the legislation passed.

2.4.2.
For the Committee, this lack of debate is a point of
concern. Hopefully, Bulgaria will benefit considerably from EU
membership, but the adaptation process will certainly also
cause serious problems. It is important that citizens are being
well aware of both sides of the medal.

It is striking that so many laws implementing the
2.5.
acquis have been passed in the last few years without them
being accompanied by an implementation plan.

2.6.
Since it was set up, the Government has drawn up some
20 position papers on chapters of the acquis. Negotiations with
the EU have been opened on 19 chapters now, 10 of these
have been provisionally closed (see Appendix II).

2.7.
Although consultation practice is still rather young
and the chapters concerned encompass only a limited acquis,
the adoption of which poses not such vast problems as for
instance the chapters on Social Policy and Employment or

First,

it appears that

the elaborate systems for
2.7.1.
consultation with the economic and social interest groups
which has been in place since early 2000 appears to be mainly
a formal structure, so far.

2.7.2.
Second, consultations apparently have not been very
intensive, so far. The Government’s draft position papers for
negotiations with the EU have not always been put at the
disposal of (all of) the consulted organisations. It is not always
clear which organisations are being invited and what the
criteria for selection are. Consulted parties sometimes com-
plain that their views are neither debated nor taken into
account.

2.8.
For none of the 19 chapters of the acquis under
negotiation the Bulgarian Government has made an impact
assessment which could serve as a point of orientation for the
consulted organisations. The same is true for the additional
chapters not yet opened, but for which a position paper has
already been completed. Among the latter is the crucial paper
on Agriculture. Impact assessments are an essential instrument
for those particularly affected by changes due to implemen-
tation of the acquis. Without them, it will be very hard for
them to develop their views on as well as their possible role in
the implementation process.

Generally speaking, central organisations at

the
2.9.
national
level of employers and workers have been most
regularly consulted. With the exception of the second largest
trade-union centre, Podkrepa, these organisations seem to be
fairly satisfied with the opportunity they have to express their
views and the impact they have on the Government. They
have concerns, though, about their own capacity to make
competent contributions. For instance, KNSB referred to the
fact that they could only participate in fifty percent of the
working groups established by the Government. Sometimes
this is due to the fact that they don’t have sufficient expertise.
Sometimes the expertise is there, but experts face insurmount-
able language barriers when confronted with EU texts.

2.9.1.
Parts of the membership of these organisations do
not seem as satisfied as their national leadership. For instance,
on the employers’ side (in particular among SME and crafts
representatives) there are concerns that consultations predomi-
nantly take into account views defined at the central (interpro-
fessional) and national level. They maintain that certain sectoral
positions and interests outside the capital must be reflected as
well.

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3. The consultation process: specific points

3.1. More specific in the case of consultations regarding the
acquis on Consumers and Health Protection (negotiations
meanwhile provisionally closed), the major consumers’ organ-
is very critical of the basic legislation now
isation, FCB,
in place, both as regards protective regulations and the
implementation and enforcement machinery foreseen in the
law. The FCB complains that it has not been sufficiently
consulted, that consultation had a purely formal character, and
that the Government had completely ignored their suggestions
for improvements which,
they claim, were fully in line
with the relevant acquis. They were highly surprised and
disappointed to see that, apparently, the European Com-
mission was satisfied with the Government’s legislative per-
formance. They expressed the concern that the Government
could and would hide major weaknesses in the law behind the
Commission’s apparent satisfaction.

3.1.1.
Another major point of criticism of the Consumers’
Federation was that the Government was unwilling to cooper-
ate with independent organisations which express dissenting
views. According to them, such views are being interpreted
as ‘acts of hostility’
(similar comments, not pertaining to
consumers’ issues but to social policy, have been made by the
trade-union confederation Podkrepa).

3.2.
As regards the consultations on the chapter on Small
and Medium-sized Enterprises (also provisionally closed) criti-
cism concentrated on the lack of attention for sector-specific
problems in general, and on the drafting and adoption of
secondary legislation without prior consultation of the relevant
interest groups.

3.3.
Five major national producers’ federations in agri-
culture note that they have not at all be consulted by the
Government when it prepared its recently completed position
paper on the agricultural acquis.

3.3.3.
In the course of the JCC EU-Bulgaria’s recent work
on agricultural issues related to Bulgaria’s integration into the
EU, such criticism was not voiced by the President of
the Federation of Co-operatives in Bulgaria (PMRCA), who
represents the interest groups in agriculture on the JCC.

3.4.
The Committee has not been able to investigate the
socio-economic aspects of two problems which have figured
prominently in the Commission’s Progress Report: the position
of minorities in Bulgaria and the units 1-4 of the nuclear
power plan in Kozloduy.

3.4.1.
As regards minorities, and in particular the Roma,
the Committee’s impression is that the involvement of the
social-economic interest groups in finding solutions for the
difficulties reported by the European Commission has been
very limited so far. It thinks that certain aspects of the minority
problem are relevant for the interest groups in Bulgaria, in
particular for employers’ organisations and trade unions (e.g.
labour market policies, vocational training). It would welcome
its counterparts in the future.
a stronger involvement of
The Government might benefit in its own efforts of such
involvement.

3.4.2.
The closures foreseen in the Kozloduy nuclear plant
will have important consequences for the community and its
vicinity. Thousands of
jobs are expected to be lost. The
Committee wishes that the local authorities, local as well as
national employers (organisations) and trade unions, as well as
relevant NGOs, will be fully involved in the Government’s and
the Commission’s efforts to alleviate the economic and social
hardship which will be caused. Obviously, the work connected
with closures will create new jobs, but at this stage it is not
clear to which degree they will sufficiently compensate the
redundancies.

3.3.1.
According to them, the Government has consulted a
host of smaller organisations at the regional or even at the
local level, some of which had only recently been established,
as well as think tanks and research institutes closely related
and supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, which cannot
be considered to represent civil society.

4. Conclusions

3.3.2.
Their explanation for these practices, which con-
spicuously differs from the earlier noted alleged tendency to
restrict consultations to central organisations at the national
level, was that the Government had political motives. They
were very critical as to the transparency of the process. As
regards the Government’s claim that all its positions can be
found on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture they
observe that it is only the final position paper which appears
on the website.

Involvement by the Government of the economic and social
interest groups in the preparation of Bulgaria for EU Member-
ship appears to have been rather modest, so far. However,
there is no reason to assume that Bulgaria is doing worse than
other Candidate Member States in this respect. The Committee
has tried to draw a fair and concrete picture of the state of
affairs. The structures and practices discussed are still too
young to allow it to identify trends. Following developments
closely and stimulating positive elements will be an important
task for the future.

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Consultations of economic and social interest groups on the
Government’s policies as regards accession to EU membership,
so far, have been, generally speaking:

— make impact assessments of the introduction of the EU
acquis with the involvement of the economic and social
interest groups;

4.1. not as systematic and comprehensive as the established
structures and the stated intentions would suggest;

4.2. rather formal, in some cases perhaps even virtual;

4.3.

lacking a proper basis: key instruments for meaningful
consultations (like impact assessments) have not been
developed;

4.4. unclear as regards the criteria for invitations used by the
Government (with the exception of employers’ and trade-
union federations);

— involve these groups not only in the preparation of its
future legislation work in the context of accession, but
also in the monitoring of implementation in practice of
the EU acquis;

— jointly with the interest groups, identify areas in the acquis
where the latter could play a role in implementation in
practice, and try to find the most appropriate way to let
them play this role.

— involve fully the Economic and Social Council in Bulgari-

a’s preparations for accession.

4.5. taking place at a relatively high and general level;

5.2.

The economic and social interest groups should:

4.6. disregarding views critical of Government policies or

plans;

4.7. primarily a technocratic and legalistic exercise on the part
of the Government, and not linked to an approach which
includes problem identification and problem solving;

4.8. sometimes handicapped by lack of capacity on the part

of the organisations consulted.

5. Recommendations

5.1.

The Government should:

— avail themselves of the opportunities for capacity build-
ing, created by the ACCESS — programme of
the
European Commission,

— in close consultation with the relevant European branch
organisations try to find solutions for the problems which
a large multiplicity of economic and social interest groups
in some sectors creates for the effective involvement of
organised civil society in the accession process,

— intensify the dialogue with their European branch organ-
isations with a view to their input in the consultation
process, in particular as regards those chapters of the
acquis which are of major importance for them as well as
for their counterparts in the EU.

— make a joint assessment with the economic and social
interest groups of the quality of the consultation process
so far and draw conclusions for improvements for the
period to come;

5.3.

The European Commission should:

— include the views of the economic and social interest
groups on the progress made by Bulgaria in its future
Regular Reports.

Brussels, 11 July 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS