DATA PROTECTION IN BULGARIA

Article 32 of Constitution stress that “The privacy of citizens shall be inviolable. Everyone shall be entitled to protection against any illegal interference in his private or family affairs and against encroachments on his honour, dignity and reputation. No one shall be followed, photographed, filmed, recorded or subjected to any other similar activity without his knowledge or despite his express disapproval, except when such actions are permitted by law”. In the light of that provision and in conformity with Directive 95/46/EC due to the aim of Bulgaria to become a EU member state[1], the Personal Data Protection Act was adopted on 21 December 2001 and came into force on 1 January 2002. The Act applies to the processing of personal data and aims to “guarantee the inviolability of individuals and their privacy through protecting natural persons against illegitimate processing of personal data related to them and through providing right to access such data, which has been collected or processed.”[2]

The Act established the Commission for Personal Data Protection, an independent supervisory authority, consisting of a Chairman and four members, elected by the Parliament for a period of five years, in order to ensure “the protection of individuals in the processing of their personal data and in the access thereof, as well as the monitoring of the observance of this Act”[3]. In addition, the Act involves provisions regarding obligations of personal data administrators, personal data protection, rights of individuals, provision of personal data to third parties, appeal against actions of personal data administrators and administrative penal provisions.

Nevertheless, the Commission still criticizes Bulgaria, because of the inconsistency of the legislation with the acquis communautaire and institutional and financial incompetence of the Commission for Personal Data Protection[4].

Snejana Georgieva -Are we ready?http://xdata.gateway.bg/images/downloads/Are%20we%20ready_eng.pps
Polina Roussinova -Private or public information?http://xdata.gateway.bg/images/downloads/Poli_eng.pps
Mina Shoylekova - Personal data protection in Bulgaria – Frequently asked questionshttp://xdata.gateway.bg/images/downloads/Centre_eng.pps
[1] Bulgaria has become a member state of EU since 1 January 2007.
[2] Personal Data Protection Act, Article 1.
[3] Ibid, Article 6.
[4] Communication From The Commission, Monitoring report on the state of preparedness for EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania, COM(2006) 549 final, Brussels, 26.9.2006.