بلغاريا

For your centract contactperson for A-Law Bulgaria, please contact lawyer Denitsa Georgieva. Denitsa speaks Bulgarian, Dutch, French, English, Russian, Serbian, Croatian.

Denitsa leads the Bulgarian team of A-Law lawyers in Bulgaria.

Why trade or invest in Bulgaria

Due to its stable political environment, Bulgaria is a very attractive option when considering your foreign investment opportunities. The fact that it has the lowest operating costs in Europe and that there are no restrictions on after-tax repatriation of profits makes Bulgaria all the more attractive.

The government is also stimulating the employment of young and disadvantaged people by offering the employer the reimbursement of up to 1 year minimum salary and the reimbursement of the costs of social health insurance.  The government also offers interesting incentives, such as the financial support for investment projects that qualify as priority investment projects and other financing schemes available for various sectors.   In Bulgaria, foreign direct investments by multinational companies already account for a large – even dominant – market share in several key sectors such as confectionery, dairy products, food & beverage.

The growing demand for new and local food and beverages in Western Europe and beyond are also boosting the demand for traditional Bulgarian products.  Bulgaria is strategically located to provide routes to Europe, Russia, CIS, the Middle East and North Africa.  Due to five Pan-European corridors that cross the country, linking Northern Europe with the Middle East and North Africa the transport sector is one of the key sectors in the Bulgarian economy.

The IT, which is traditionally an export-oriented sector, is another key sector in Bulgaria.  A number of world and local IT leaders have headquarters in Bulgarian such as SAP, VMware, Johnson Controls, CISCO, HP, Telerik, Musala Soft and Melon Inc.  Due to this reason there are a huge number of certified ICT professionals active in Bulgaria. The country offers qualified human resources working on world-level projects and at competitive salaries.

The above combined with the excellent climate, nature, food and hospitality of the Bulgarians, makes Bulgaria hard to resist.

Some particularities of the Bulgarian law and the Bulgarian legal system you should know

As with every country foreign to your own it is important to familiarize yourself with the particularities of the country that you want to trade with or invest in.  In Bulgaria one of the first issues that you will be faced with is the fact that foreigners are not allowed to own land.  Although this general principle has been condemned by Europe as far as it is applicable to citizens of the European Union, it is still the case today.  However under very specific circumstances foreigners and foreign legal entities can acquire ownership of the buildings that are erected on the land.

Foreigners and foreign legal entities can also acquire limited rights to agricultural land under conditions and procedures specified by law and through legal succession.  One exception to the above it that any citizen from the Member States or States Parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEAA) can acquire agricultural land, forests and forest land if they are a self-employed farmer who wishes to establish themselves permanently in Bulgaria. To be able to make use of this exception the person has to be registered as such in Bulgaria and also be registered with the VAT authorities.

Another important particularity is the fact that one has to be cautious to sign or stamp your invoice as this might give rise to interpretation issues regarding the payment status of the invoice. 

A-Law law firm Bulgaria

A-Law has been assisting a wide range of  clients from different regions worldwide concerning their transaction projects with Bulgarian counterparts active in a wide variety of sectors as services, chemicals, manufacturing, raw material, construction, logistics, agriculture, FMCG, IT and so on.  Debt recoveries for or against Bulgarian entities,  making use of the European Order of payment or local legislation is part of the A-LAW expertise.

In particular we have assisted a shipwright in their claim against a Bulgarian merchant exploring the asset and corporate structure and related securities.  We have incorporated (M&A) several building construction, logistic and business services companies in Bulgaria and have assisted in obtaining several employment permits in relation to posting workers from Bulgaria to EU countries including the related contractual work.