Insights

Digitalisation in Europe and in Bulgaria continues to happen, sometimes slower, sometimes faster, but regardless of the pace one thing is certain - the digital world is growing, increasing not only the digital threats, but also the significance of their consequences. While there is room for improvement, mobile banking and insurance, e-signing of contracts and documents, e-administrative services are now widely available. In parallel, the internal processes of companies and public organisations that are critical to society, for example in the energy, transport and health sectors, depend heavily on information systems and services. In this context, it is not surprising that ensuring better security is becoming a key priority for European regulators. This brings us to the entry into force of the Network and Information Security Directive NIS 2 on 17 October, a deadline that has been missed by most EU countries and the rules have yet to be transposed into national legislation. Why the delay, what are the challenges for Member States and what does it mean for Bulgarian business are the main questions that companies are concerned about. *This is an interview with Nikola Stoychev by Maria Karashanova. The text is in Bulgarian.

One of the key characteristics of the modern information society is its interconnectivity – the state borders become less and less relevant. The rapid development of the technologies in the second half of the twentieth century, together with the tendency towards globalization, enabled the people to travel around the world more than ever before. To that end, one of the most popular forms of travel is the air travel. Daily tens of thousands of people travel around the world with aircraft. At the same time, the information related to the reservation for an air journey of a given passanger (passanger name records – PNR) could have significant impact for the competent law enforcement agencies in their efforts to fight against terrorism and serious crime. To regulate how the air carriers should collect PNR and provide it to the competent law enforcement authorities, the EU has adopted Directive (EU) 2016/681. The present paper aims to analyze how this Directive was transposed into the legislation of the Republic of Bulgaria. It focuses on some of the key aspects thereof such as the applicable legal framework, the designation of the competent authorities, the control over these activities, etc.

At the beginning of August, the Employment Registration Ordinance (the "Ordinance") was passed, which further develops some of the forthcoming changes to employment law. The changes relate to the introduction of a new employment register at the National Revenue Agency ("NRA") and a single electronic employment record to replace the employment record book. A brief overview of the main changes is provided in this article.

The Regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA) entered into force on January 16, 2023, and forms an integral part of the European Commission's digital finance package, a package of measures to further enable and support the potential of digital finance in terms of innovation and competition, while mitigating the risks arising from it. DORA will become directly applicable in each Member State from January 17, 2025. In this article, Desislava Krusteva, Partner at Dimitrov, Petrov & Co., gives an overview of the interplay between DORA and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Unlike traditional easements, which require the existence of two adjacent properties (dominant and servient) and are created by virtue of a contract, easements under the EA arise by virtue of the law. This raises a number of practical issues, such as exactly how the easement arises and how compensation is determined for the owners of the affected properties. However, in the practice of municipalities there is a misunderstanding of the matter, cumbersome administrative procedures and unpredictable requirements of the administration that carries out this activity - which, in turn, impedes investors and delays RES projects. *This publication is in Bulgarian