The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) and disability policies in Bulgaria

Abstract

This article deals with the most prominent soft law instrument in the European social policy, namely the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) and its influence on the social inclusion of people with disabilities in Bulgaria.  The paper focuses in particular on the introduction and the functioning of the OMC in the pre-accession period: it offers an analytical overview of the Bulgarian legal framework and examines, at the same time, the impact of the OMC on the main policy discourses and actors’ networking in national disability policies, using the concepts of policy transfer and policy learning.