The price of motor vehicle third-party liability insurance in Bulgaria had to be increased to 300 euro, Orlin Penev, chairperson of the Association of Bulgarian Insurers told private broadcaster Darik Radio on September 25 2009.

The current average price of the insurance, ranging from 80 euro to 120 euro, was far lower than the levels charged in other European Union countries, which put Bulgarian insurance companies at a disadvantage, since Bulgarian third-part liability insurances are valid for the whole of the EU.

"When the insurance risk goes down, then the insurance policy price goes down as well. However, what we have in Bulgaria is an insurance risk that goes up. We have all witnessed the numerous cases of people paying bribes for their driving licenses and the number of road accidents happening on the roads in Bulgaria," Penev told Darik.

On another level, increased competition on Bulgaria's insurance market has also helped to prevent price increases. Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily quoted Emil Atanassov, a member of the Financial Supervision Commission, as saying that the fight for customers has made insurance companies offer low prices of their products.

These low prices could prove costly for the system and cause financial turmoil, as insurers tend to cover the losses they traditionally register from the sale of third-party liability insurance by raising the prices of other products.

According to Atanassov, about 600 000 motor vehicles did not have the obligatory third-party liability insurances. The figure is about 20 per cent of all registered vehicles in Bulgaria, while the EU requirement was for no more than 10 per cent.