The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has launched the first cycle of monitoring of the operational and technical application of the Common European Asylum System. Bulgaria is among the first three Member States to undergo the exercise, alongside Malta and Slovakia.

The monitoring is carried out against objective criteria established by Management Board Decision No 198 of 16 June 2026. As part of the exercise, the EUAA invited civil society organisations to provide information on the basis of their expertise.

The Foundation for Access to Rights – FAR has submitted a contribution addressing the five criteria identified by the Agency as closest to our mandate: INS05. Accessible free legal counselling and free legal assistance and representation; ASY04 and REC04. Timely and effective information provision and access to information, in the procedure for international protection and in reception respectively; ASY05. Timely identification and assessment of the need for special procedural guarantees; and REC07. Timely and effective access to essential rights and services.

The contribution draws on FAR's own legal practice — individual case management, administrative and judicial proceedings, requests under the Access to Public Information Act, and field information sessions across the country. It sets out both recurring shortcomings and good practices, and concludes with recommendations. The central finding from our casework is the gap between the formal recognition of a right and the ability to exercise it in practice — most visibly in social assistance for refugee children, family reunification, accommodation for beneficiaries of temporary protection, and the identification of vulnerability during the status determination procedure.