OPINION OF THE KRIB REGARDING THE DRAFT LAW TO AMEND AND SUPPLEMENT THE LAW ON THE PREVENTION AND ESTABLISHMENT OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST, No. 354-01-92, SUBMITTED BY MAYA MANOLOVA AND KIRILL DOBREV

The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria expresses the following position regarding the proposed amendment to the Law on the Prevention and Establishment of Conflict of Interest:

1. Offers to drop the proposed c § 1, item 6, which creates a new item 24 with the following content

"item 24 the members of the committees for monitoring the operational programs co-financed by the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund of the European Union, apart from those under item 27."

Motives:

The motives of the petitioners for expanding the scope of the law with the inclusion of new categories of persons who perform state functions or participate in the distribution of public (including European) money do not apply to the representatives in the monitoring committees of the nationally representative organizations of workers and employers , as these representatives are not civil servants and as members of the committees they do not distribute public funds, according to the provisions of Council Regulation (EU) No. 1083/2006 of 11.07.2006 on the determination of general provisions for the European Regional Fund, the European Social fund and Cohesion Fund.

The monitoring committee (the monitoring committee) ensures the effectiveness and quality of the implementation of the Operational Program in accordance with the provisions provided for in Article 65 of the same regulation, which does not provide for the authority of the committee to allocate European money.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that the monitoring committees were created on the principle of partnership in order to ensure greater commitment of the bodies that participate in the process of implementing the structural instruments of the European Union in Bulgaria. The representatives of the social partners in these bodies provide the connection between the participating governmental and non-governmental structures and the relevant organizations for synchronizing policies and greater transparency in solving problems in the management of operational program activities.

The formation of the composition and the method of determining the members in the monitoring committees gives an insignificant share of votes to the representatives of the social partners /6 votes/. This share does not play a decisive role in decision-making within the monitoring committees, where representatives of the state administration prevail.