Bulgaria: agreements

Bulgaria: agreements              

Agreements with the Netherlands

The following agreements exist between Bulgaria and the Netherlands:

·         an agreement regarding international road transport (1970);

·         an agreement regarding the development of economic, industrial and technical cooperation (1976);

·         an investment protection agreement (IPA/IBO). The IPA/IBO offers guarantees in case of    e.g. nationalisation or confiscation (1999);

·         an agreement for the prevention of double taxation (1994);

·         an agreement regarding technical and financial cooperation (1998);

·         an agreement regarding international road transport (2003);

·         an agreement regarding the export of social security payments (2005);

More Information:

·         Double taxation: Ministry of Finance www.minfin.nl, search in 'tax agreements/belastingverdragen'

·         Agreements between the Netherlands and Bulgaria, Ministry of Foreign affairs, www.minbuza.nl/verdragen

Agreements with the European Union
Bulgaria has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 2007. In the accession treaty one general economic ‘safeguard clause’ was included. Apart from that there are two special safeguard clauses regarding the domain of the internal market and for justice and internal affairs. These clauses are meant to keep putting pressure on the Bulgarian Government to keep working on reforms, also after joining the EU. The following demands/problems have been listed for the coming years:

·         Fight against corruption: measures to stress the irreversibility of the fight against corruption; consolidation of the reforms within the judiciary.

·         Air Safety: Bulgaria does not comply with European standard regarding air safety (e.g. maintenance and required papers for staff);

·         Food Safety: there is still swine fever in the country and also recent measures regarding the fight against  TSE have not yet been implemented effectively;

·         Reform of the judicial apparatus: guarantee of the independence of jurisdiction; secure liability of the judicial system in the constitution; improvement of the capacity and the quality of the judicial system by acceptance and implementation of laws and improved control mechanisms;

·         Nuclear Reactor: round off operational and administrative measures for definitive closure of two of the units of the Kozloduy nuclear reactor.

Trade Agreements with other Partners

·         Bulgaria made an agreement with the EFTA (European Free Trade Agreement).

·         Bulgaria applies the General System of Preferences (GSP) of the UNCTAD. Pursuant to this system for goods from developing countries, on the submission of a certificate of origin 'Form A' and a certificate of direct transport, lowered import duties. Import from the 42 poorest countries is exempt from import duties;

·         Bulgaria is a member of the South-East European free trade zone. Members are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldavia, Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro.

Trade Agreement with Individual Countries

·         In 1998 Bulgaria signed a free trade agreement with Turkey. The trade in industrial goods between these two countries has been liberalised since 1 January 2002.

·         Since 2001 an agreement with preferential tariff has become effective between Bulgaria and Israel.

·         Bulgaria also grants preferences to Armenia, Azerbaidzjan, White-Russia, Georgia, Lebanon, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Syria and Tadzhikistan, based on the 'Most Favoured Nation' principle.

Various other international agreements
Bulgaria is a member of the following international organisations, amongst other things: NATO, World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations and the specialised VN-organisations, Organisation for Safety and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (CE), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Black Sea Economic Council (BSEC).- Bulgarije - minder <<