Will the Constitutional Court allow the limitation of the right of association?

If we assume that the Bulgarian society regained again its enthusiasm to unite around important causes and learnt to seek an answer to the political decisions, as well as responsibility of the politicians, than we will see that all this happened thanks to the people united around a case of a kind. This “union” is exactly the opportunity, recognized by the law, to set up an association or foundation. At the beginning of 2015 the General Assembly of the college of Commerce of the SCC submitted a request to the Constitutional Court for interpretation of Art. 12, para. 2 of the Constitution.

Why this is not necessary?

We find that the wording of Art. 12, para. 2 is sufficiently clear and does not need interpretation by the Constitutional Court. The general interpretation of this text would not provide sufficient guarantees that, in concrete cases, it will not achieve a result, just the opposite to the spirit and conception of the text. At the same time, Bulgaria is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which in Art. 11 regulates the right to freedom of association and the eventual limitations of this right. The European Court of Human Rights has vast case law on the topic and makes clear interpretations when the right to freedom of association can be limited, including the aims for which people associate. A different interpretation, made by the Constitutional Court, could lead to questioning whether Bulgaria respects the European standards of the human rights.

The right of association under ECHR may be limited only in cases clearly listed, and the “political objectives” are not among these cases. If a right is being limited, it must be shown that this limitation is necessary in one democratic society.

A principled interpretation will not take into consideration the concrete facts of each individual case and this can lead to limitation of the right of association.
If the concept of “political purposes” is interpreted widely, than practically all the activity of research institutes, organizations defending the interests of its members and any organization that expresses its opinion on the state policy might be restricted. And as we know, one of the fundamental principles of EU is the inclusion of citizens and their organizations in the process of decision-making. Well, it sounds like it can`t be the purpose of the constitutional provision.

The assumption that the civic associations cannot have political purposes endangers the ability of the Bulgarian society to unite around cases which have the aspiration to put into discussion the political problems of the country. This would forbid people to develop and express their views on the government policy and would reflect to the civic activity which is so necessary in order to make a decisive personal and democratic choice.

The full text and the motives to this position you can read in our statement, which was addressed to the Constitutional Court (it is available in Bulgarian here).