The Ministry of Justice has expressed its support for a bill aimed at easing the critical workload at the Registry Agency. Deputy Minister Iva Kecheva emphasized to the committee that the processing of annual financial statements will continue without interruption, while measures will be taken to accelerate the process. She noted that the backlog dates back to 2023 and that the volume of submissions has surged by nearly 100 percent following the entry into force of the legislation on the introduction of the euro.
To cope with the massive number of applications, a draft amendment to the Commercial Register, initiated by Yanka Tyankova and members of parliament from "Progressive Bulgaria" (PB), has been submitted to Parliament. The proposal provides for the creation of a separate stream for annual financial statements. During the discussion, Milen Trifonov of PB raised a question regarding current capacity, to which Executive Director Eliana Ilieva replied that the Registry Agency currently has only two vacant positions.
Tyankova justified the need for legislative measures by the inability of officials to meet statutory deadlines. In her words, the current situation is serious, as the inability to respond to irregularities in a timely manner leads to the generation of new procedures and repeat applications. Forecasts indicate that without reforms, the delay in registering changes will reach 41 days in November and 51 days in December. To overcome the crisis, the following is proposed:
- Separating annual financial statements and declarations from other applications;
- Providing the executive director with the authority to hire up to 30 experts on one-year fixed-term contracts to work outside the established staffing levels for a period of two years.
Nikoleta Todorov of "Progressive Bulgaria" stressed that the bill is crucial for supporting businesses and the legal profession, as the procedures for appealing refusals resulting from minor irregularities are currently extremely cumbersome. Despite the support in principle from Stefan Arsov (GERB–SDS) and Petar Petrov ("Vazrazhdane"), critical voices were also heard in Parliament.
Alexandra Stefanova of "Democratic Bulgaria" expressed concern that separating the streams might even exacerbate delays in reviewing statements, which are important for guaranteeing commercial turnover. Stoyo Stoev ("We Continue the Change") pointed out that the workload problem escalated following the mass changes in company circumstances related to the euro. He questioned whether the administration would be able to successfully organize the two queues and whether it would find enough candidates for the fixed-term contracts, predicting that the peak of the pressure will occur in the next 1-2 months.