Access to public information

The right to seek and receive information under Article 41(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria entails a duty on the part of state authorities to provide access to information of public importance. The Access to Public Information Act governs both access to public information and the reuse of public sector information. Under Article 2(1) of the Act, information is public if it concerns public life in the Republic of Bulgaria and enables citizens to form their own opinion about the activities of the bodies and persons subject to the Act. Such information may be contained in documents or other physical media created, received or kept by those bodies or persons. In other words, public information encompasses all data concerning public life contained in documents or other physical media created, received or kept by a body or person subject to the Act. The Act distinguishes between official public information, contained in acts issued by state authorities and local self-government bodies in the exercise of their powers (Article 10), and administrative public information, collected, created and kept in connection with official information or the activities of the authorities and their administrations (Article 11). Access to official public information is provided through its promulgation. Access to administrative public information is granted under the Act, subject to restrictions where the information concerns the preparation of an authority’s acts and has no independent significance (opinions and recommendations prepared by or for the authority, advisory opinions and consultations), or where it contains opinions and positions on current or forthcoming negotiations conducted by or on behalf of the authority, or related particulars, and was prepared by the administrations of the authorities concerned (Article 13(2)). Article 37(1) also lays down grounds for refusing access: 1. The information requested is classified or constitutes another secret protected by law in the cases prescribed by law; 2. Disclosure affects the interests of a third party who has not expressly consented in writing, unless there is an overriding public interest; 3. The information requested was supplied to the applicant within the preceding 6 months. Article 26(1) provides for the following forms of access: 1. Inspection of the information, in the original, as a copy or through a publicly accessible register; 2. An oral response; 3. Copies on a physical medium; 4. Copies supplied electronically or the internet address at which the data are stored or published. Under Article 26(3), where the preferred form is that specified in paragraph 1, point 4, the technical parameters for recording the information must also be specified.

Under Article 27(1), authorities must provide access in the preferred form unless: 1. It is technically impossible to do so; 2. Doing so would entail an unjustified increase in the cost of providing access; 3. It would create a risk of unlawful processing of the information or copyright infringement. Under Article 27(2), in the cases specified in paragraph 1, access is provided in a form determined by the authority concerned.

This article does not provide a legal opinion or advice about any particular person or situation. For assistance with an individual case, consult a lawyer.