Directorate “European Affairs and EU Legislation for Goods and Services” performs the following functions:
- Assists the Minister in fulfilling the responsibilities arising from the membership of the Republic of Bulgaria in the EU, in the field of goods and services;
- Coordinates the preparation of the Republic of Bulgaria’s position and the reporting of outcomes from the regular and informal meetings of the EU Competitiveness Council, and organizes the Ministry’s participation in these meetings; prepares briefings and position proposals for meetings of other EU Council configurations regarding matters within the Directorate’s remit; and drafts instructions for meetings of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU Council;
- Participates in working groups, committees and other formats of the Council of the EU and the European Commission related to horizontal issues of the Single Market and development of EU legislation and coordinates the work on initiatives arising from their activity;
- Coordinates the Ministry’s work regarding the European Semester, the National Medium-Term Fiscal-Structural Plan, and related documents;
- Assists the Minister in the development of national policies in the field of market surveillance, standardisation, metrology, and accreditation and interacts with the national institutions in these areas – the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization, the State Agency for Metrological and Technical Surveillance, the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology, and the Executive Agency “Bulgarian Accreditation Service”;
- Organises the work of the National Metrology Council;
- Fulfils the obligations of National Enquiry Point for exchange of information for draft technical regulations with the European Commission;
- Fulfils the duties of Product Contact Point according to Art. 9 and 10 of Regulation (EU) 2019/515 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the mutual recognition of goods lawfully marketed in another Member State and repealing Regulation (EC) No 764/2008;
- Fulfils the obligations of National Enquiry Point under the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) ;
- Carries out the organisational and technical support of the activity of the Council for coordination and exchange of information between the authorities performing control of goods on the market;
- Interacts with and assists the national competent authorities for the fulfilment of the obligations of implementing the requirements of the Services Activities Act and Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market;
- Coordinates and performs activities related to the functioning of the Point of Single Contact, established under the Services Activities Act, in accordance with Directive 2006/123/EC, in cooperation with the Ministry of Electronic Governance;
- Organises and coordinates the fulfilment of obligations under Art. 39 (5) of the Directive 2006/123/EC on notification of national regulations and measures introducing restrictive requirements for access or exercise of activity in the provision of services;
- Organises and coordinates the fulfilment of the obligations and the participation of the Republic of Bulgaria in the exchange of information through the EU Internal Market Information System in relation to services within the scope of Directive 2006/123/EC;
- Organises and leads the activity of Working Group 1 “Free movement of goods” and Working Group 3 “Right of establishment and free provision of services” according to Council of Ministers’ Decree No. 85/2007 for coordination on EU matters by:
a) coordinating and participating in the fulfillment of the obligations in connection to the membership in the EU;
b) preparing opinions on the correspondence of draft legislative acts with the EU law
c) coordinating and participating in the preparation of analyses, information, opinions, positions and guidelines with regard to the participation of the Bulgarian state in the work of the EU institutions;
d) participating along its own representatives in the meetings of the relevant working groups, committees and other working forums to the Council of the EU and the European Commission;
e) interacting with non-governmental ogranisations and organizing their participation in the process of development, introduction and implementation of the EU law;
f) informing the economic operators for their obligations arising from the EU legislation;
g) participating in the preparation of responses to enquiries of the European Commission and of positions for infringement procedures; - Participates through its representatives in the work of other working groups under the Council on European Affairs, established pursuant to Council of Ministers Decree No. 85 of 2007 on coordination regarding European Union matters, and of other inter-agency working groups in connection with the fulfillment of the obligations of the Republic of Bulgaria as an EU Member State;
- Maintains operational contacts at expert level on EU matters, including through its representatives at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Bulgaria to the EU, with EU institutions, as well as with the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria, as well as with the institutions of the EU Member States;
- Participates in the drafting of legislative acts to achieve compliance of the Bulgarian legislation with the EU law in the areas of competence of the Directorate;
- Interacts with the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria;
- Supports “Economic Policy” Directorate with the execution of initiatives in the field of better regulation and the preparation of specific proposals for the removal and/or the facilitation of the existing administrative regimes;
- Participates in the development of the forecasts and the draft budget of the Ministry, as well as in the execution of the programs within the programme budget of the Ministry with respect to its functional competence.