Monitoring Action for Civic Space. Country report Bulgaria

16 февруари 2026 г.

Тема: Демокрация и гражданско общество

Категория: Анализи и доклади

The Monitoring Action for Civic Space (MACS) methodology is designed to assess the state of civic space in EU countries with a focus on identifying both progress and deterioration in selected countries.

The European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, European Civic Forum, Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Nyt Europa, Le Mouvement associatif, Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation, Netherlands Helsinki Committee, National Federation of Polish NGOs and the Civil Society Development Foundation joined forces to create MACS, using our collective expertise in the monitoring field. MACS consists of two complementary tools: the country reports and the Early

Warning and Alert System. The methodology monitors the following dimensions:

Freedom of Association;
Access to Funding;
Freedom to Peaceful Assembly;
Freedom of Expression;
Participation in Decision-Making;
Safe Space.

Each dimension is evaluated against a set of standards that capture the state's commitment under international and European human rights law. Each standard is assessed using qualitative indicators. For further details, download the full methodology.

Throughout the reports, the red highlighted sections mark any developments that are directly falling or could potentially fall under the sphere of competence of the European Union. This is to better understand where the EU has the legal authority to act, as opposed to developments that remain under Member State control.

2025 was the testing phase of the methodology by national partners. While some partners monitored all six dimensions, others focused on the three core civic space dimensions (association, peaceful assembly and expression) and selected one additional dimension aligned with national priorities.

Country process

The drafting of this narrative report was preceded by a data collection phase including desk research and a review of:

legal acts, including draft legislation and amendments;
reports by state and non-state actors and articles;
access to information requests (43)
review of relevant case law both national and of the ECHR; Monitoring Action for Civic Space Country Report, 2025: Bulgaria 23
an inquiry disseminated amongst relevant stakeholders and consequent interviews for additional questions. The data collected is relevant for the period of January 2025 to December 2025.

Докладът на български език можете да намерите на страницата на Български център за нестопанско право.

Година на издаване: 2025

Eзик: английски

Автор: The Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL)

Издател: Monitoring Action for Civic Space

Свали документа