Civil Society Index – Country report for Bulgaria

Balkan Assist Association (BAA) - www.balkanassist.bg

Bulgaria CSI Report: Executive Summary Downloadable in pdf [746KB]

Bulgaria CSI Report: Full Report. Downloadable in pdf[5MB]

Civil Society Without the Citizens: an Assessment of Bulgarian Civil Society

Released by the Balkan Assist Association (BAA), the CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) programme partner in Bulgaria, highlights funding and sustainability as the major challenges to Bulgarian civil society. Given Bulgaria’s upcoming accession to the European Union in 2007, many donors are now phasing out their support, and Bulgarian civil society is challenged to develop new ways of sustaining itself. BAA is now coordinating the first concrete actions resulting from the assessment.

Earlier this year, it held a national workshop to share and discuss its findings with more than 80 stakeholders across the nation, and to provide opportunities for the stakeholders to develop recommendations for strengthening civil society in Bulgaria. Recognising that citizens’ taxes could potentially finance civil society’s activities, a civil society task force was established to draft a law that would enable citizens to voluntarily donate 1% of their taxes to a CSO of their choice.

To date, the task force has met twice, and BAA is working closely with other CSOs to organise the task force’s activities. In a recent meeting, hosted by the Bulgarian Center for Non-for-Profit Law, which is an active participant in the task force, four sub teams were created to rally support for the 1% tax law. These sub teams will lobby CSOs, state institutions, political parties, business and the media for their support.