Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 19th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview General Session Author(s) Svetla Mihaleva Varna Free University "Chernorizets Hrabar" Varna Bulgaria Mihaleva Svetla, Title The Bulgarian experience to introduce european instruments for improving the administrative capacity: The example of “authorized economic operator” File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Bulgaria obtained credit of trust and was accepted as an EU member state in 2007, with the expectance to demonstrate its willingness and ability to observe the European norms and standards of good governance. Within that context it is of crucial importance for the Bulgarian administration to improve its capacity and follow the good European practices. For this reason the paper analysis is focused on the possibilities to introduce and implement new instruments for improving the quality of the administrative activity. The authorized economic operator (AEO) is such a new instrument that provides better quality for the Bulgarian administration and is particularly established to facilitate activities of the customs, the traders, and the end consumer. This outlines the frame of the paper’s object of research: to describe the new European practice (AEO) and to explore the possibilities for its introduction and implementation in the Bulgarian administrative practice. The relevance of the paper’s topic is due to the even more increasing necessity for balance between the increased demands for security in following the customs regimes and the facilitation of the accurate traders. What follows is to develop and introduce efficient measures that will successfully protect the traders and the transport systems from terrorism, while at the same time they preserve the efficiency of the present systems and the benefits for the users and the business. There are two stages in the paper analysis. First, it examines the purpose of the AEO certificate to reconcile the responsibility of the customs authorities with this of the certified business to provide for secure and safe trans-border crossings. A special attention is paid to the results from the analysis of the activity of the customs administrations of the 27 member-states and of the economic operators on the implementation of the new customs legislation, related to the status of authorized economic operator. During the short period when this status has been operational both sides of the process have faced series of problems in the application of the new legislation, realizing at the same time the new philosophy that is in the base of the relationships customs authorities-authorized economic operator. The second stage of analysis reveals the problems that both the customs authorities and the economic operators themselves face. In relation to the identified problems and taking into account the acquired experience including the information exchange with other customs administrations, we have come to the main recommendations towards the economic operators for further familiarization and analysis of the AEO regulations even before applying in order to realize the role and the responsibilities that an authorized economic operator bears as a new figure in the relations customs-business, that will lead to overcoming the possible problems at the very beginning of the process. Different sources of information are used for the empirical basis of the research. In general, the paper conclusions are based on reviewing and analyzing the AEO documents, as well as several reports, surveys and researches analyses of organizations using it in practice. In addition, findings are supported by the author’s personal observations from the Bulgarian administration.
