After extensive public consultations and parliamentary
procedures, on 24 January 2019 the law implementing Regulation (EU)
2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the
processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data
and repealing Directive 95/46/EC
("GDPR") into the Bulgarian Personal
Data Protection Act ("Implementing Law")
was officially adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament. Shortly after,
on 4 February 2019, the Bulgarian President vetoed the Implementing
Law due to concerns regarding the regulated data processing for
journalistic purposes and the purposes of academic, artistic or
literary expression.
1. Background of the veto
The President used its right to veto the Implementing Law, since
it has disputed the provision of Article 25z. Article 25z proclaims
that data processing for journalistic, academic, artistic or
literary purposes is only lawful when:
