Proposal for Certifying Translator’s Signature by Notaries, not only by MoFA

The certification of translator’s signature which is currently done by the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be carried out by all Bulgarian notaries and not by the head office of the Ministry in Sofia as it has been done so far. This is proposed by Deputy Prime Minister for Justice Reform and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva with amendments to the Regulations on Legalization, Certification and Translation of Documents and Other Papers. Also, the service will get cheaper, from 15 to 5 BGN (VAT excluded).

For the purposes of public discussion, the draft amendments were published on the ministry's website and the public consultation portal strategy.bg on August 11.

They aim is to facilitate citizens and business and to speed up administrative procedures for translation, legalization and certification of documents and other papers.

"At the moment, the translator’s signatures are certified only by MoFA employees at the head office in Sofia, which leads to significant difficulties for the Bulgarians who live outside the capital. The main priority of our government is to reduce the administrative burden for individuals and businesses in all spheres, and the certification of translator’s signatures is part of the measures we actively take in the MoFA system to improve the service," Deputy Prime Minister Zaharieva said.

Currently, the translations of documents and papers to be certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are carried by hand at the Certification and Legalization Service at the Consular Relations Directorate, which takes a lot of time and financial resources. The envisaged changes will no longer require representatives of translation companies or citizens to travel to the Head Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital for the sole purpose of certifying translation of a document.

For the service, the MoFA currently collects a fee of BGN 15, and for notaries the same will cost BGN 5 excluding VAT.

"Our notaries work in 133 places in Bulgaria and there is an opportunity for comprehensive service to the citizens throughout the country. The Notary Chamber fully supports the efforts of Minister Zaharieva to reduce the administrative burden and we will continue to work in this direction. We welcome the pragmatic approach of Minister Zaharieva, namely the attention to the detail that is decisive for achieving the desired results," Dimitar Tanev, Chairperson of the Council of Notaries said.

In order to ensure legal certainty and professional level of translation, Ekaterina Zaharieva in her report suggests that the translator should be legitimised before the notary through a document issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showing that the translator had been included in the list of legal entities carrying out official translations of documents and other papers.

So far, the team of Deputy Prime Minister Zaharieva has taken the following actions to reduce the administrative burden in the ministry:

- Installation of POS terminals for payment by bank cards at the counters of the Central Headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia and removal of payment with state tax stamps

- Step-by-step introduction of bank card payments at consular offices abroad. This is now possible in Athens, Rome, The Hague, and Milan

- Proposals for amendments to the Law on Bulgarian Personal Documents, which enbales passports and ID cards to be issued only with one visit to a consular office abroad (if the citizen submits documents online, he / she would receive the document personally OR if he / she applies to a consular officer, will be able to receive the issued ID document by courier at home address). Double reduction of deadlines for issuing documents, for which the applications were submitted abroad (speedy service will take 30 days rather than 60 days, and for ordinary service – the time limit will be 45 days rather than 90 days). The validity of the passports will be 10 years instead of 5 years, and this measure will come into force from 2020.

- Reduction of the fee for issuing a temporary passport (from € 67 to € 50) and issuing a record criminal conviction (from 20 to 10 euros), with a change in the charges for the fees collected by the MFA

- Facilitating the procedure for including translation agencies in the list of legal entities performing official translations

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