Strasbourg, 10 October 2024 (MIA) - Despite certain positive developments in Bulgaria in the past four years related to legislation, access to health care and education, insufficient progress can be observed in the implementation of the previous recommendations of the Council of Europe to ensure an effective access to minority rights in the country, notes the Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in its Fifth Opinion on Bulgaria published on Thursday.

The Committee makes recommendations to the Bulgarian authorities for the promotion of the cultures and languages ​​of the national minorities, fostering trust and mutual respect, as well as improving the situation with the Roma minority.

"As in the previous cycles, persons identifying as Macedonians reiterated their long-standing wish to be protected under the Framework Convention, but because the authorities do not accept the existence of the objective criteria for them, these persons are unable to enjoy access to individual minority rights. Their long-term attempts to register associations promoting the Macedonian community have not been successful," reads the document.   

The Advisory Committee finds it crucial that a pragmatic approach towards persons self-identifying as Macedonians is followed, based on the principle of free self-identification.  

"Persons self-identifying as Macedonians, who continue to request protection under the Framework Convention, reported to the Advisory Committee that they perceived some actions of the authorities as actively discouraging them from self-identifying as ethnic Macedonian. Instances of attacks during public events organised by them, as well as obstacles for organising protests and different events were reported to the Advisory Committee," notes the Committee.   

The Opinion points out that interlocutors of the Advisory Committee have mentioned that "there is no awareness about the significance of minority rights in the Bulgarian society and that there is no understanding of national minorities as an integral and valued part of Bulgaria". 

"Interlocutors of the Advisory Committee also reported a lack of knowledge about minorities in the society being reflected in the limited teaching offered in minority languages or about their historical presence in Bulgaria, their cultures, traditions and histories," the document adds. 

The Opinion notes that the European Court of Human Rights, in 12 cases against Bulgaria, lodged by applicant associations the aim of which is to protect the interests of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, found violations of Article 11 of the ECHR (freedom of assembly and freedom of association), related to the UMO Ilinden group and concerning the refusals of the national courts to register the applicant associations. 

The Committee says that the European Court of Human Rights found such decisions to be unjustified and "a disproportionate interference with the right to freedom of association, inter alia since the applicant associations had not advocated the use of violence or other undemocratic means to achieve their aims". 

"The Court also found that the fact that several of the goals of the associations were labelled as “political” was not a sufficient ground for refusing their registration," the Opinion reads. 

The Committee also notes that six judgments in this group of cases have been under the enhanced procedure of supervision for their execution by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for more than 17 years now.

"As a general implementation measure in the UMO Ilinden group of cases, Bulgaria has adopted amendments to the Act on Non-Profit Legal Persons and the Commercial Register and the Register of Non-Profit Organisations Act, which modified the procedure for registering NGOs. Since January 2018, the registration of NGOs by courts has been replaced by an administrative procedure before the national Registration Agency. In October 2020, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted an Interim Resolution, urging the authorities to adopt legislative or other appropriate measures to ensure broader and more effective obligation for the Registration Agency to give instructions to associations to rectify registration files. In August 2021, the government adopted a road map for the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, which foresees the preparation of legislative or other appropriate measures to ensure a broader and more effective obligation on the Agency to instruct associations to correct their documents where objectively possible," reads the document. 

The document further notes that in December 2022, the Committee of Ministers deplored the fact that despite the adoption of the 2020 Interim Resolution, associations aiming to achieve the recognition of the Macedonian minority continue to be routinely refused registration, mainly due to a wider problem of disapproval of their goals and are confronted with a persistent practice by the authorities raising new grounds for refusal. 

"Despite the amendments introduced in 2018 modifying the procedure for registering NGOs, the Advisory Committee regrets that this group of cases remains unimplemented. It equally regrets to learn from its interlocutors who have attempted to register their associations, about a number of recent cases, whereby the Registration Agency refused to register UMO Ilinden organisations, and the domestic courts upheld those refusals. The Advisory Committee hopes that the authorities would comply with their international obligations by executing the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and thereby also comply with the freedom of association, as ensured in Article 7 of the Framework Convention. The Advisory Committee calls on the authorities to ensure that persons belonging to different communities can exercise freedom of association, as guaranteed by Article 7 of the Framework Convention. The authorities should provide for legislative or other appropriate measures that will make
registration of non-governmental organisations representing minority communities effectively possible," the document adds. 

Part of the Opinion also mentions relations between Bulgaria and the country, noting that the 2017 “Treaty of friendship, good-neighbourliness and cooperation between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia” (now North Macedonia), in force since February 2018, seeks to further develop good neighbourly relations, friendship and co-operation based on respect of fundamental principles of international law on friendly relations among states and on respect of democratic principles enshrined in the Council of Europe instruments.

"The treaty envisages the establishment of two commissions: an expert commission on historical and educational issues and intergovernmental commission. The former commission has made hardly any progress, as the Advisory Committee was informed by different interlocutors, in resolving differing views of history and linked to this, different historical narratives about nation-building and state-formation processes which include narratives about the existence of nations and languages," the document notes.  

The Committee points out that the issue "has been placed within the context of EU integration of North Macedonia", also mentioning the agreements and programmes signed between the two countries for cooperation in the field of education, science and culture.  

In addition, among the positive developments noted in Bulgaria, the document mentions the legislation on combating hate speech and hate crime, efforts regarding access to education, as well as public health measures that have had a positive impact on access of Roma to health care. Also, the document commends the adoption of a “National Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism (2023-2027)” in October 2023 and the restoration of a synagogue in the city of Vidin. 

"Despite this, no significant progress can be observed during the reporting period in implementing recommendations to ensure effective access to minority rights enshrined in the Framework Convention. Whereas Bulgaria has played an increasingly active role in promoting the rights of persons belonging to Bulgarian minorities abroad, the same efforts cannot be observed internally. In general, there is a notable lack of awareness of minority rights as an integral part of human rights," the document notes, adding that further steps need to be taken by the authorities to combat prejudices against and stereotypes of minorities.

The Advisory Committee urges the Bulgarian authorities to systemically promote the cultures and the languages of persons belonging to national minorities, including by providing sufficient, earmarked and sustainable long-term baseline funding necessary to preserve, develop and promote cultures and identities of persons belonging to national minorities, with a particular focus on supporting also numerically smaller minorities.

"The knowledge among the majority population about national minorities, minority cultures, languages, religions and identities, should be improved with a view to fostering greater acceptance of minorities and persons belonging to them as an integral and valued part of Bulgarian society," says the Committee.

The Advisory Committee also stresses that a more proactive approach in relation to minority language education is required. Furthermore, sustained positive measures are needed, including to incentivise students to learn minority languages and ultimately pursue studies in teaching of these languages at university. 

"The Advisory Committee reiterates its call on the authorities to allow the use of languages other than Bulgarian during election campaigns and find effective ways, in consultation with persons belonging to national minorities, to ensure that these persons are able to enjoy their right to political participation and the right to receive and impart information and ideas in minority languages," the document adds among other. 

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