The Bulgarian model of sports governance.

• Author: Kanatova-Buchkova, Veselina

1. Legal ground

   The main legal act that regulates the public relationships concerning the physical education and sports in Bulgaria is the Bulgarian Physical Education and Sports Act /PESA/ which was passed by the Bulgarian parliament in 1996.

   The term 'sports' is also used in the Bulgarian Constitution where article 52, par. 3 stipulates that: 'The state guards the health of the citizens and stimulates the development of sports and tourism'. This is the only constitutional norm that uses the term 'sports' in connection with the citizen's health. The norm is within chapter two of the Constitution which regulates the main rights and obligations of the Bulgarian citizens and is part of article 52 which outlines the main principles of the health system in the republic of Bulgaria. The correlative relation between sports and public health is stated further as a principle in article 3, par.2, p.2 of the Physical education and sports Act, which stipulates that the sports and physical education system should be: 'a complex binding of physical education and sports with health care and recreation activities, education and culture, into a common functional system for improvement of its balanced effect on all strata of the population.'

   The concretization of the constitutional norm for sports related matters, namely the concretization of how the state 'stimulates' sports is made by Physical education and sports Act. Article 4 of the same outlines the means by which the state applies its powers in stimulating the sports in Bulgaria. In fact the 'right for sports' is firstly recognized as a main right of the citizens not in the Constitution but in article 4 of the Physical education and sports Act. According to art.4.1 the state encourages the development of physical education, sports and tourism by recognizing the physical training, sports and tourism as internal necessity and right of each Bulgarian citizen to maintain and perfect his moving activities. Further the named article lists the state's competence towards sports, that are, not comprehensively, as follows: The state throughout its organs creates the normative regulation of physical education and sports (art.4.3), establishes the conditions for the development of the 'sports for all' - the children sports, the sports for the pupils and students (art.4. 4); ensures the preparation and the participation of national and Olympic teams in international competitions and Olympic games (art.4.5); builds, maintains, modernizes and controls the exploitation of sports bases and equipment - public state property and establishes the conditions and procedures for their exploitation (art.4.6); supports, coordinates, regulates and controls the activity of the sports organizations (art.4.7); educates the sports specialists and supports their future qualification (art.4.10); finances the approved sports related projects (art.4.12). The same authorities are given to the municipalities as bodies of local self-governance, even though they are not mentioned in the Constitution as executive bodies which 'stimulate' sports.

   In fact, the whole following legal regulation of sports activities in the Act on physical education and sports, namely - the type and competence of state bodies of physical education and sports governance, the status of the sports organizations and the degree of their dependence to the state, the regulation of the rights and obligations of the athletes, the exploitation of the sports bases, the financing of sports and other, is structured according to the abovementioned general principles about the state and the municipalities authority in sports. What I mean is that because it is the state, or a concrete municipality, which has the authority to regulate all the basic sports related matters, to control their execution and to finance the sports activities, it could be concluded that the sports system in Bulgaria is built according to the mentioned by Josef Cobra 'interventionist model'. (1)

2. Government bodies for management of the sports.

   In accordance to Art. 7 from the active Physical Education and Sports Act /PESA/ the basic directions of the national policy in the field of the sports are approved by the Council of Ministers /CM/. CM accepts national program for development of the physical education and sports for the period of 4 years (the period of the mandate of the government according to the Bulgarian Constitution which coincides with the Olympic cycle) and reports its fulfilment before the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria /NARB/. The CM also annually provides the necessary funds for the development of physical education and sports due to the State Budget Act of Republic of Bulgaria where financing of the sports activity is stipulated.

   In the frame of its power in the capacity of a common executive - ordering body which determines and performs the government policy in every aspect and sphere of the government management and in particular the system of the physical education and sport, the CM determines the special administration institutions which will fulfil the government policy in the area of the physical education and sports. Regularly these are the respective Ministers which are members of the Government and which are approved by NARB after the newly chosen prime minister introduces the members of the new Council. (2) In the cases when for a definite sphere of government management CM does not provide a creation of separate ministry the same has the power, stipulated in Art. 35 from the Administration Act, to establish a new administrative structure due to a Council of Ministers decree which structure could be empowered and burdened with the fulfilment of the respective government policy in a certain sphere of public life. Namely due to that competency of the CM was the Committee for the physical education and Sports established as a special body of CM for pursuing the government policy in the area of the physical education and sports. The establishment of the body and the assigning of the functions in the field appointed above do not contradict the aims of the law and does not subordinate the government policy to the internal interests of the Committee. That is that way because CM exercises its constitutional powers by the help of its bodies which CM manages and controls. Its power is to cancel by its own will these acts of the government institutions which it considers to contradict the entire governing of the state (Arg. Art. 107 from the Constitution, respectively decision nr. 1562/15.03.2000. of Supreme administrative Court, 5 member jury).

   When PESA was accepted in 1996 there were provisions for the powers of the chairman of the so-called by the law - State Agency of Youth and Sports /SAYS/. Art. 8 determines the powers of the chairman of State Agency of Youth and Sports, predestines the constitution of a special administrative body which should pursue the government policy in the field of physical education and sports. From the administrative point of view the capacity of "executive body" the chairman of the agency powers, as it was already said, were expressly determined by the law. The chairman was helped by administration which activity, structure and competence were determined by structure regulation accepted by CM (Art. 48 from the Administration Act).

   Before the acceptance of PESA there was a lack of comprehensive legal regulation in the sphere of the society relations connected with the management of the physical education and sports in Bulgaria. This activity was firstly performed by the Bulgarian union for physical education and sports, then Committee for physical education and sports (its name has been changed many times), that also had the position of bodies established with governmental orders and subordinated to the Government. Probably that was the reason for accepting in PESA in its first edition the state organ to execute the government policy in sports to be an agency, not a ministry.

   Together with the change of the Governments however, after PESA was accepted, the status of the administrative bodies which exercised the powers in the area of the physical education and sports was changed. In 2002 after the Parliament elections in Republic of Bulgaria the newly chosen Government took the decision for transforming SAYS into Ministry of Physical education and Sports and respectively the chairman position of SAYS was transformed into a Minister of Physical education and Sports. The transformation in the status was made by a change in PESA, which is the legal way for doing so, and in [section] 34 of the Act for amending and complementing of PESA was stipulated that everywhere in PESA the word "chairman of SAYS" to be changed with Minister of Youth. In [section] 35 from Act for amending and complementing of PESA was also stipulated that all the properties of SAYS would be legally accepted by the newly established CM Ministry of sports. On the next Parliament elections held in 2005 the Government was changed and the newly elected Government regained the position of the Ministry of sports into an Executive Agency. The change in the position of this specialized government body was made due to amending of PESA and especially the provisions of [section]4 & [section]5 from the Act for amending and complementing of PESA and respectively the secondary legislation was again changed by orders and decrees of CM.

   The newly chosen Government during 2009 regained the position of the agency into a ministry. Among the members of the new Government which were introduced by the prime minister and approved by the NARB was elected a Minister of the physical education and sports as a special administrative body in that area of state government.

   In a view to the change CM accepted - DECREE nr. 195 of CM dating from 6TH of August 2009 for closing of SAYS and for accepting a structure regulation of Ministry of physical education and...