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While the establishment of broadcasting regulations in Bulgaria looked extremely unlikely at the end of 1996 as a result of the Constitutional Court's judgment No 21 of 14 November 1996, which found that major, central aspects of the Radio and Television Act infringed the Constitution (see IRIS 1997-1: 10), there have been new developments which will at the very least delay the fundamental legal provision coming into force. A group of Members of Parliament has applied to the Constitutional Court again for investigation of the constitutionality of a large number of provisions contained in last November's...

The Bulgarian parliament ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television on 4 December 1997. The corresponding law was published in the official gazette, Darzaven vestnik (No. 117/97) on 10 December. Under the Bulgarian Constitution, international instruments, when ratified by Parliament, take precedence over domestic law. This means that the Bulgarian Broadcasting Act must now be reviewed to ensure its compatiblity with the Convention. (Editor's note: The Bulgarian instrument of ratification had not yet been deposited with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe).

In its Decision No. 21 of 14 November 1996, Bulgaria's Constitutional Court held that some of the main provisions of the recent Broadcasting Act adopted on 5.9.1996 ( see IRIS 1996-10: 14) were unconstitutional. The constitutional appeal lodged by 74 Members of Parliament, backed by a constitutional appeal lodged by the Attorney General, focussed on the statute, the composition and the powers of the National Broadcasting Council (NRR) ( see IRIS 1996-6: 15). For the parliamentary draftsmen, the Council - which was based on a particular Western European model, as repeatedly stated in public debate...

On 9 September 1996, the Bulgarian Parliament passed the long-awaited Radio and Television Act. This came into force on 13 September, bringing to an end the prolonged period during which broadcasting in Bulgaria had been governed by transitional regulations, based on a temporary Statute for Bulgarian National Radio and Television. Adopted by the National Assembly on 22 November 1990, this Statute had freed broadcasting from government control and subordinated it to Parliament, as the supreme representative body in the state. It had also established a legal basis for the activity of the state broadcasting...

Following the entry into force on 1 August 1996 of the Additional Protocol to the Europe Agreement establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States of the one part and Bulgaria, of the other part ( see IRIS 1996-2: 5), Bulgaria may now participate in Community programmes and projects in the fields of, inter alia , information services and the audio-visual sector (which includes the MEDIA II programme; see also : IRIS 1996-7: 6). On 21 June 1996, the European Communiities and their Member States signed a Partnership Agreement with the former Soviet Republic of...