Amendments to Foreigners Act: An Open Letter
His Excellency Georgi Purvanov
President of the Republic of Bulgaria

Mr President
I write to humbly request you to consider returning to Parliament for further consideration the amendments to the Foreigners Act as approved by the National Assembly on January 20, 2005.
The specific provision that I request that you ask Members of Parliament to reconsider is that concerning the requirement that applicants for permanent residence in Bulgaria prove their proficiency in the Bulgarian language.
I make this request with all due respect and humility, because I am not a citizen of Bulgaria, but am one of many foreigners living and working in Bulgaria, and with a Bulgarian family, affected by this provision.
The substantiation for my plea is as follows.
It is not usual practice around the world, and specifically in countries of the European Union, to impose such a requirement on applicants for permanent residence. A requirement of proficiency in the language of the country is the norm only where an application is being made for citizenship. I may, at this point, add that I fully endorse the right of any country to require its citizens, and would-be citizens, to be proficient in its language.
Without researching the rules of each and every EU country, I conducted a quick check of the rules for permanent residence as applied in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Rather like the rules as applied in Bulgaria until now, they have in common criteria for permanent residence like investment, work contracts, marriage, and other family ties. None requires official language proficiency.
Further, some time before the expansion of the EU in May last year, a meeting of EU ministers of justice and home affairs agreed on a rule that non-EU citizens who legally have held permanent residence in one of the then-15 EU member states for a minimum five years would be eligible for permanent residence in any other EU member state. My interpretation of this rule would be that, after Bulgaria joins the EU in 2007 (which I have the fullest confidence it will do), permanent residents from other EU states would be able to apply for permanent residence in this country on the basis of the Union ministers' agreement made in Luxembourg. This would seem to suggest a contradiction between the EU ministers' agreement and the amendment adopted by the National Assembly.
Further, you no doubt will be aware that the foreign language requirement was in 2004 inserted into regulations flowing from the Foreigners Act, but was subsequently removed later the same year, after concerns were raised by the foreign business community, among others. The arguments raised at the time were based on several impractical implications of such a rule, and concern that it would serve as a discouragement to investment and to persons doing business within the country. The decision by Parliament to reverse this reversal of the decision has been met with surprise by many members of the foreigner community, who while they may not be contributing $500 000 of investment to this country, nonetheless are legally conducting small and medium-sized businesses that provide jobs and contribute to the economic growth of this country.
The rule of a language requirement also would seem contradictory in cases where foreigners have invested in property, as the constitution is being amended to allow them to do, and as in practice is happening already. For a foreigner who has purchased a property in Bulgaria as a retirement home, for example, being required to prove proficiency in the language may be a difficult burden. News of the language requirement may also serve to discourage those contemplating buying a property, if they find out that the rule would effectively bar them from living in it for any lengthy period of time, beyond that allowed by short-term visa rules.
There would also seem to be a difficulty, for example, for a person who is in a bona fide marriage to a Bulgarian citizen, but may not have the aptitude for learning languages well. Is such a person to be denied permanent residence, and the right to live with their spouse, and must they face perpetually and at some cost renewing their temporary residence?
Your Excellency, I wish to emphasise that I have the greatest love and respect for the Bulgarian language, although I do not have more than a mediocre grasp of it. It is the language of my family, and my home, and it is the language in which my daughter will receive her education. I wish, when I become eligible under all terms of the law, to apply for the honour of Bulgarian citizenship, and it is my fullest intention to embrace the Bulgarian language as my own.
My concern has to do with the practicalities of the law, as outlined above, and that it does not seem to be consistent with practice in countries of the EU, of which Bulgaria in due course will be one.
With the greatest respect, I ask for your understanding in this matter, and await your response.
My best wishes for your future, and that of this country, travel with this letter.

Yours faithfully

Clive Leviev-Sawyer
Editor-in-Chief

The Sofia Echo
Bulgaria's national
English-language newspaper
9A San Stefano Street
Sofia, Bulgaria