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When the Water Framework Directive was adopted by the European Union in
2000, Bulgaria’s Law on Waters proved to be an inadequate tool for
the transposition of the Directive into the country’s national legislation.
That became possible only later, in 2000 and 2001, when much of the Law
was amended and its binding by-laws were elaborated – most importantly,
the two regulations that concern integrated river basin management, i.e.
those regulating the Basin Directorates and the Basin Councils, which are
described below.
The Law on Waters defines four regions for basin water management in Bulgaria
– the Danubian, the Black Sea, the East–Aegean and the West–Aegean
regions. Despite the fact that the Law entered into force in the beginning
of 2000, the first real steps towards introducing basin-level water management
were taken in January 2002, when the Regulation for the Activities, Organisation
of Work and Structure of the Basin Directorates was officially announced
and entered into force. The selection and appointment of the Directors of
the four Basin Directorates followed in August 2002. The Regulation foresees
the election of the Directorates’ staff to be completed in January
2003. The Basin Directorates are in charge of information collection and
creation of databases, water monitoring, management of all water bodies,
which are exclusive state property, public relations and distribution of
information. The functioning of the Directorates in financed entirely from
the state budget. The question about allocating for this purpose sufficient
resources in the state budget, and in general about financing the implementation
of the water management policy remains to be addressed, but many experts
are convinced that the state budget will not be sufficient and that external
donors and funds will have to be sought. In order to be able to seek funds
and identify donors, the Directorates’ staff yet needs to be adequately
trained.
The Law on Waters also provides for a high-level Expert Council on Waters
involving representatives of various stakeholders, including scientific
institutions, local administration and non-governmental organisations. The
Council is a permanent body at the Ministry of the Environment and Water
and has consultative functions.
Other very important structures that are to be established soon involve
a Basin Councils at each Basin Directorate. The aim of the Councils is to
support the functioning of the Basin Directorates and in this way contribute
to the unified and balanced water management for the benefit of the population,
human health, preservation of the natural water habitats and bodies, and
sustainable development of the respective basin region. The Councils are
the main bodies to guarantee public information and involvement and the
participation of concerned experts in the integrated river basin management
procedures. The activities, structure, functioning and composition of the
Councils are to be determined by a draft regulation that has yet to be adopted.
For now, the Councils are foreseen to have 20% state adminsitartion representatives,
30% local adminsitration representatives, 30% representatives of water consumers
and owners of water management facilities, and 20% representitives of NGOs
and scientific institutions.
The functioning of the Councils has to be financed by the Directorates’
budget, but there is no limitation on additional funds raised from external
sources. The latter will certainly play an essential role since the state
budget is not seen as a sufficient funding tool.
These procedures and structures, introduced by the Law and its Regulations
are a very positive step forward in the direction of efficient and sustainable
water management practices through the involvement of all parties concerned
and information of the public at large.
A comparative analysis of the EU WFD (2000/60/EC) and the Bulgarian Law
on Waters (1999) and its relevant Regulations from 1 to 12 was carried out
under the PHARE Access project Citizens and Community Participation in the
Management and River Watersheds Protection: Practices, Access to Decision
Making and Legislation Process. The conclusion drawn in the course of the
analysis is that there is a general correspondence between the WFD and the
Bulgarian legislation on water. The percentage of disparity between the
two documents is put at about 19%. The main weakness of the Bulgarian legislation
seems to lie in the lack of correspondence between WFD Annexes and the Bulgarian
Law on Water – the comparative analysis found the disparity to amount
to 45%.
Finally, many experts believe that the Law still suffers from certain imperfections.
Its implementation is made even more difficult by the shortage of funds
coupled with the inertia of the responsible government bodies. Despite the
Law’s current imperfections, most experts agree that it is necessary
to promptly embark on its full and effective implementation in order to
create the envisaged bodies and procedures and make them fully functional.