Bulgaria’s Cabinet approves steps to cut red tape burdening business
Bulgaria is to cut back on the documentation and time-consuming procedures that have been burdens on businesses, according to a Cabinet decision on October 3 2012.
Acting on a proposal tabled by the Finance Ministry, the Cabinet adopted a plan to reduce the regulatory burden on business.
According to the government media office, the plan includes 249 measures that are intended for implementation by November 30 2012.
Most of these measures were drawn up in line with proposals made by employers’ and professional associations, NGOs and on the basis of reports and comments in the media, the statement said.
The Cabinet said that from March to June this year, reviews had been done of regulatory regimes in all ministries, to come up with ways to cut out procedures that held back small businesses, and to reduce regulatory costs and the degree of state intervention, along with reducing procedures involving documents and reducing the time taken for service.
The plan was prepared in accordance with the guidelines for implementation of initiatives to reduce administrative and regulatory burdens on business, approved by the Council for Administrative Reform in February. This initiative was aimed at “eliminating, simplifying and reducing” administrative barriers to business arising from nearly 750 regulatory regimes inBulgaria.
The plan foresees a reduction of the required documents for the use of 84 administrative services.
The largest number of measures are proposed in the fields of health (45), agriculture and food (43) and the economy, energy and tourism (26), the statement said.
The decision by Bulgaria’s Cabinet came just two days after the European Commission called on small and medium enterprises to come forward with proposals on how to reduce red tape resulting from European Union law.
(Photo: Vangelis Thomaidis/sxc.hu)
