Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

BULGARIA | NANCHO NANCHEV 699 In the present case the preparatory track began in January 2017 with the creation by the Minister of Tourism of a working group which decided to proceed expeditiously and include in the modification act chiefly the transposition of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 8 . In September 2017 the first version of the bill was put on the site of the Ministry of Tourism for a public discussion 9 . From now on the adoption term seemed rapidly shrinking as Art. 28 (1) of Directive (EU) 2015/2302 requires the national implementation measures to be reported to the Commission by January 2018. The Bulgarian branch organisations of the tour operators have been active participants in this public discussion. It becomes clear from the motives to the project that a necessity appeared for strengthening the Minister of Tourism’s controlling functions by the creation in its structure of a specialized controlling unit. This structural incompleteness was residual of the fact that till 2014 the Ministry of Tourism didn’t exist and its sector of activities was covered by the then Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism. Another accompanying measure to be conveyed with the draft bill was the alleviation of the administrative burden for citizens and business including by cancelling some requirements concerning the paper documents. Once elaborated, the legislative project made a tour of the ministries for an inter-ministerial assessment. Afterwards, as a bill for the implementation of EU measures it had to be confirmed by the Council for European Affairs, a specialized coordination body under the authority of the Council of Ministers comprising representatives from all the ministries and other interested state institutions (Bulgarian National Bank, National Customs Agency and others) 10 . Then the draft was passed to the Council of Ministers for final approval before sending it to the National Assembly at the very end of November 2017. While in the parliament the draft bill sparked only one discussion on the proposal to empower the Ministry of Tourism with proper controlling functions instead of the Commission for Consumer Protection which already had this task in the tourist sector as a dependent on the Ministry of Economy 8 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad= rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKE wi2lf3zy9DkAhXPjqQKHYk_A8MQFjAAegQIABAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tourism.government. bg%2Fsites%2Ftourism .government.bg %2Ffiles%2Fuploads%2Frezume_otchet_programi_30.06.2017_mt.docx &usg=AOvVaw1ds69Pcq3ManOrEdgsHD8L (in Bulgarian). 9 http://www.tourism.government.bg/sites/tourism.government.bg/files/uploads/obsht_obsujdane/1/motivi_ zid_na_zt_za_saita-19092017_last.pdf (in Bulgarian). 10 https://iisda.government.bg/ras/executive_power/council/1133 (in Bulgarian).