A Draft Proposal of the Performing Arts Law was presented in Oct 2010.
The Act to Amend the Radio and Television Act is in force since January 2010.
Bulgaria/ 5.2 Legislation on culture 
Table 6: Overview of cultural legislation in Bulgaria
Title of Act | Year of adoption | Amended and supplemented |
1. Protection and Development of Culture Act | Official Journal No. 50/01.06.1999 | OJ No. 1/2000; |
2. Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act | Official Journal No. 56/29.06.1993 | OJ No. 63/1994; |
3. National Chitalishte Act | Official Journal No. 89/22.10. 1996 | OJ No. 95/1997; |
4. Compulsory Deposit of Copies of Printed and Other Works Act | 2000 | - |
5. Act to Amend the Radio and Television Act | 1998 | OJ No. 60 & No. 81/1999; |
6. Film Industry Act | 2003 | OJ No. 28, No. 94 & No. 105/ 2005; |
7. Act on Administrative Control on the Production and Trading in Optical Disks, Matrixes and other Storage Media, Containing Copies or Objects of the Copy and Neighbouring Rights | Official Journal | OJ No. 105/2005; |
8. Maecenas Law | Official Journal | OJ No. 103/2005; |
9. Electronic Communications Act | Official Journal |
|
10. Cultural Heritage Act | Official Journal |
|
11. Public Libraries Act | Official Journal | Amended., issue. 74/ 15 September 2009, in force as of 15 September 2009 |
12. Act to Amend the Radio and Television Act | Promulgated in Official Gazette, issue 99/ 15 December 2009, in force as of 01 Jan. 2010 |
|
13. Act to Amend the National Chitalishte Act | Promulgated at Official Gazette, issue 42/ 5 June 2009 |
|
Bills | In progress | |
1. Draft Proposal of Performing Arts Law | A draft has been prepared and presented by the Ministry of Culture for review and comment within the Working Group - October 2010 | |
The Law on Maecenas, adopted in 2005, was implemented to create new opportunities for the funding of culture in Bulgaria. Under the provisions of this law, the state supports and encourages the Maecenas with tax relief, determined in special legislation- the Corporate Income Tax Act and the Personal Income Tax Act. Under the terms and provisions of the Law, the tax base is reduced to 15% in cases of grants. An annual state award was established in order to stimulate this process, which will be administered by the Minister of Culture. Unfortunately, for the past five years, the Maecenas Law has not been a stimulus - it is even a considerable institutional impediment in two alternative instruments for financing Bulgarian culture - donations and the "Art Lottery". The Law is a far cry from the modern innovative forms of donation (e.g. by means of the World Wide Web) making use of some unnecessary and hard to manage intermediary organisations which, according to the Law, are supposed to connect the donor and the recipient. Consequently, nowadays we there are only 19 organisations and 5 individuals officially registered in this Register of Donors (http://mc.government.bg/page.php?p=141&s=232&sp=0&). The amounts donated could be between 50 and 500 000 yearly.
Table 7: International legal instruments
Title of international legal instrument | Year of adoption, accession, ratification | Entry into force |
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention - The Hague, 1954 | OJ No. 24/07.11.1956 | 07.11.1956 |
Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1999) | Ratification 14.06.2000 |
|
UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972) | Accepted on 07.03.1974 | 17.09.1975 |
UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970) | Ratification 15.09.1971 | 24.04.1972 |
Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001) | OJ No. 24/23.09.2003 | Not yet in force |
The Universal Copyright Convention (1971) | Accession 07.03.1973 | 07.06.1975 |
Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) | OJ, No. 12, 7.02.2006, Ratification 10.03.2006 | 10.06.2006 |
UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions | OJ, No. 97/01.12.2006, Ratification 18.12.2006 | 18.06.2007 |
European Cultural Convention (1954) | Accession 09. 09. 1991 | 09.09.1991 |
European Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe (1985) | OJ, No. 13/15.02.1991 Accession 31.01.1991 | 01.05.1991 |
European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised) -1992 | Ratification,OJ, No. 30/1993 Ratification 02.06. 1993 | 25.05.1995 |
European Convention for the Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage and Protocol (2001) | Signature 08.11.2001 | Into force 01.01.2008 |
27.04.2004 | 01.08.2004 | |
European Convention on Transfrontier Television (1989) | 03.03.1999 | 01.07.1999 |
European Landscape Convention (2000) | OJ, No 94/2004 Ratification 24.11.2004 | 01.03.2005 |
Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (2005) | Signed on 27. 10. 2005 Ongoing ratification | Not yet in force |
UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage |
| 02.01.2009 |
Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2007) |
| 19.12. 2009 |
Chapter published: 20-01-2011
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Council of Europe/ERICarts, "Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe, 14th edition", 2013 | ISSN 2222-7334