The State Agency for Refugees under the Council of Ministers published the draft Law on International Protection, in compliance with Article 85(1) of the rules of the Council of Ministers and the requirements of the Law on Normative Acts. The draft law is available on the Public Consultation Portal, accompanied by: i) a report on the full impact assessment of the draft law; ii) summary of the full impact assessment report; iii) opinion of the Directorate "Coordination and Modernization of Administration" of the Council of Ministers; and iv) explanatory notes and a report to the bill.
The draft law is open for public consultation until 25 February 2026. To date, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee submitted six comments on the draft law, mainly raising concerns about content and drafting process.
According to the summary of the draft Law on International Protection, the following main changes are envisaged:
Border procedure is to be introduced and will apply at the border under accelerated procedures.
The law reinforces and adds safeguards for applicants for international protection. The draft law introduces rules on effective access to legal protection, information and legal assistance at every stage of the international protection procedure.
Effective judicial review by obliging the court to take a decision on the merits of a case based on the facts and elements available at the time of decision. Therefore, cases will no longer be sent back for a re-examination.
A summary in Bulgarian is available here with the main changes envisaged by the draft law.