Public procurement in Bulgaria is governed by one main law, a regulation for its implementation and three directives of the European Union. Around them are the rules on the electronic signature, on the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) and on appeals. Below is what each act governs and where its official text is.
> Important: The text promulgated in the State Gazette prevails. The Public Procurement Agency (PPA) keeps an up-to-date consolidated text of the Public Procurement Act and guidance on applying it – start there. The official texts are in Bulgarian.
Public Procurement Act (ZOP)
The main law. It governs who is a buyer, when a contract is a public one, the types of procedure and when each applies, the deadlines, the bidder requirements, the grounds for exclusion, the evaluation of bids, the contract, the guarantees and the appeals.
- Last amended: State Gazette No. 71 of 7 August 2026.
- Consolidated text of the Public Procurement Act – PPA (PDF, in Bulgarian)
- The Public Procurement Act on Lex.bg
- National legislation – the PPA's page
The 2026 amendments introduce, for example, an indicative procurement plan that buyers announce by 30 November, without changing the thresholds or the minimum deadlines of the procedures.
Regulation implementing the Public Procurement Act (PPZOP)
The details the law leaves to the regulation: how the individual procedures are run, how the committee works, what the minutes contain, how an organisation registers in CAIS EOP, how bids are encrypted and opened.
- Last amended according to the PPA: State Gazette No. 62 of 23 July 2024.
- The regulation – PPA text (PDF, in Bulgarian)
The amounts in the law after the euro
Since 1 January 2026 Bulgaria has used the euro, but the Public Procurement Act still states the thresholds in leva. They are read in euros at the fixed rate of BGN 1.95583 to €1, rounded under the rules of the Euro Introduction Act. The PPA publishes an official table of the converted amounts in methodological guidance MU-1 of 5 December 2025.
The most important amounts are collected in the table of thresholds.
The directives of the European Union
The Public Procurement Act transposes three 2014 directives into Bulgarian law. They set the EU thresholds above which a tender is also announced in the Official Journal of the EU (TED) and stricter deadlines apply.
- Directive 2014/24/EU – public procurement – for public buyers.
- Directive 2014/25/EU – sector procurement – for water, energy, transport and postal services.
- Directive 2014/23/EU – concessions .
The EU thresholds are revised every two years. For 2026–2027 they were set by delegated regulations of 22 October 2025:
- Regulation (EU) 2025/2152 – thresholds under Directive 2014/24/EU
- Regulation (EU) 2025/2150 – thresholds under Directive 2014/25/EU
- Regulation (EU) 2025/2151 – thresholds for concessions
- The new delegated regulations – the PPA's explanation (in Bulgarian)
> Note: The EU thresholds in Art. 20(1) of the Public Procurement Act are slightly lower than those in the regulations for 2026–2027 (for example €5,381,917.65 against €5,404,000 for works). When the value is close to the threshold, check which text the buyer applies in the documents.
European Single Procurement Document (ESPD)
The ESPD is the standard declaration in which a bidder states that it meets the requirements and that no grounds for exclusion apply. The form is set by an EU regulation and is filled in through the electronic service of CAIS EOP.
- Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/7 – the ESPD form
- The ESPD service in CAIS EOP
- How to fill it in step by step: The ESPD – what it is and how to fill it in
The electronic signature
Bids are signed with a qualified electronic signature (QES). The rules are in the Bulgarian law on electronic documents and in the European eIDAS regulation.
CAIS EOP – the electronic platform
The Centralised Automated Information System for e-procurement is mandatory: tenders are published in it, questions are asked, bids are submitted and decisions are served (Art. 39a of the Public Procurement Act). If the platform has an unplanned outage on the last day of a deadline, the deadline is extended.
- CAIS EOP – published tenders
- Sign in to CAIS EOP
- PPA guidance and video lessons
- Questions and answers on CAIS EOP
- Decree No. 332/2019 on the stages of using CAIS EOP (PDF)
PPA help desk: phone 0700 17 151 or +359 2 90 68 760, email [email protected].
Appeals before the CPC and the Supreme Administrative Court
The buyer's decisions are appealed before the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) within 10 days. The CPC's decision is appealed before a three-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court within 14 days; the court rules within one month and its decision is final.
The state fee for an appeal to the CPC depends on the estimated value of the tender or of the lot:
| Estimated value | Fee |
|---|---|
| up to €511,291.88 | €434.60 |
| from €511,291.88 to €2,556,459.41 | €869.20 |
| above €2,556,459.41 | €2,300.81 |
The fee for an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court is the same.
- Public procurement – the CPC's page
- Tariff of fees (PDF)
- In detail: Appealing a public tender before the CPC
Ordinances with specific requirements
Some tenders must also follow ordinances with technical requirements – for example on the environmental characteristics of certain products, on clean vehicles and on the life-cycle costs of vehicles. The list is on the PPA's page on national legislation .
Restrictions on Russian bidders
Above the EU thresholds it is prohibited to award contracts to Russian nationals and companies and to persons linked to them (Art. 5k of Regulation (EU) No 833/2014). When bidding for a tender above the thresholds, bidders declare that the prohibition does not apply to them.
> Law: The guide summarises the law in plain language and does not replace it. For a specific tender the Public Procurement Act, its implementing regulation and the buyer's documents prevail.
