The Ministry of Jusitce proposed amendments to the Law for non-profit corporate bodies. They are the long awaited concrete step in the fulfillment of Strategy for development of civil society in Bulgaria and for regulated actions to support the non-government organizations.
The suggested proposals are in 3 major directions.
Changes in the way of registration in the Central register for non-profit corporate bodies are foreseen at first place. This will allow to use more effectively the gathered information on one hand and to facilitate the organizations themselves to present relevant information on the other.
An important change is the creation of Council for civil society development. It is expected to be a consultant entity, in which representatives of state and local authorities will be equally represented. The Council will accept an Annual plan for Strategy’s execution, will make statements on legislative documents, strategies and plans, related to non-government organizations’ activities, will carry out annual overview on the interaction between State and NGOs.
The third proposal envisages the constitution of Fund for support and development of non-government organizations. It aims to create a mechanism for transparent financing of non-government organizations by the State.
A wide meeting which united over 100 representatives of NGOs from the whole country was held on January 13, 2015. Its objective was to consult on a maximum wide basis the proposed amendments of the Law for non-profit corporate bodies.
At this forum the National Network for Children was presented by Georgi Bogdanov and Maria Brestnichka.
The event was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev and the Minister of Justice Hristo Hristov. Both of them committed to support the development of non-government sector, the amendments of Law for non-profit corporate bodies to be widely discussed and to be made in consulting process with the NGOs.
The major criteria for election of non-government organizations representatives, Council’s members and election procedure were commented during the meeting. Most of the participants agreed on the proposed amendments, but also on the necessity to pay attention to the details of Council and Fund creation.
Photo: pixabay.com/Counselling
