After a quiet preparation process with no space for the civil society, Bulgaria published its national plan for implementing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum (the Pact) on 20 December 2024.
The Bulgarian national plan is a complicated, detailed and lengthy document. The whole text of the plan you can eccess here: https://pris.government.bg/document/dd484df1ab524ca2c860dff2ba531d52.
Currently there are multiple working groups chared by the State Agency for Refugees, the Ministry of Interior, State Agency for National Security and other ministries and agencies for the execution of the plan. Ongoing discussions for a completely new Law on Asylum are in process.
With this publication we present to your attention summary of the main points that the Bulgarian national plan envisages in regard to screening and border procedures to be introduced, reception conditions with new premisses to be established, new procedural rules to be implemented, accelation of returns, Dublin procedures, solidarity mechanism, crisis managemnt, resettlement, integration, budget colculations.
The revision of Bulgaria’s implementation plan leads to some disturning conclusions in regard to:
- Isolating the civil society and grassroots organizations
- Shift from asylum to migration
- Human rights monitoring on paper
- No clear and decisive policy in addressing and overcoming Bulgaria’s zero integration policy.
