The ECLI-BG project is being implemented by the leading Bulgarian legal information provider Apis Europe JSC (APIS) – coordinator of the action, and The Union of Bulgarian Jurists, which is the most authoritative association of legal practitioners in Bulgaria.
APIS 
APIS is a legal information provider with more than 29 years of experience in serving legal professionals with high quality information services in the field of law. It was founded in 1989 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Nowadays, its four offices are located in Sofia and Pazardzhik. The company maintains a flexible corporate structure with a staff of over 100 employees and around 70 sales representatives. Presently, APIS serves the needs of more than 50,000 end-users: judges, lawyers, in-house legal counsels and experts in organisations from the private and public sector.
APIS is the first private company and current leader in creating, developing and selling legal information systems on the Bulgarian market. The company was established in 1989 by Vasil Hristovich. In the beginning its main activities were related to broadcasting legal information publications, including a monthly issue called “Collection of Laws”.
In 1993 the company started developing its own legal software, focusing on information-retrieval systems and the provision of information services.
In the following years, a highly qualified and ambitious team of software engineers, legal specialists, experts and consultants was assembled. These specialists have made possible the broadening of the product range and the creation of new information systems in the fields of finance and company registers.
In 2006, following the extension of its legal databases with EU legislation and case law, APIS Europe JSC was established as a separate company.
In the end of 2010, answering the dynamically changing clients’ needs, APIS launched a new integrated legal information system called APIS 7 on the market. It combines new technologies and functionalities with convenient design, providing:
- quick access to the reference texts of provisions and filtering the case law practice, according to related provisions
- improved visualization results and sorting, in accordance with the search criteria
- customization of filters and structural representation of the information from State Gazette
- SMS and e-mail notification if changes in a certain legal act (pointed out by the user) occur.
In addition, APIS actively organizes seminars, academies and meetings, with the aim of introducing and discussing important issues and novelties in the legal and economic sphere.
Using the experience gained through the years APIS Europe JSC has tackled the next challenge by reaching for the European market. For this purpose, the company developed the unique product EuroCases – a multilingual online service providing access to a rich collection of national case law of EU Member States with relevance to EU law.
THE UNION OF BULGARIAN JURISTS 
The Union of Bulgarian Jurists is the largest NGO of legal practitioners in Bulgaria, with a membership of more than 2500 member jurists from all legal professions unified in 40 societies within the country.
The Union of Bulgarian Jurists (UBJ) was established in 1966 as a voluntary, independent, public and creative organization, uniting persons of higher law education. It is a legal successor of the Bulgarian Jurists’ House Cooperative Society founded in 1925.
In its activities the Union is governed by the democratic principles of guaranteeing and safeguarding citizens’ rights and freedoms as per the Constitution and the International Agreements, guided by the task of making Bulgaria a democratic and constitutional state.
The UBJ protects the jurists’ rights, helps improve their qualification and satisfy their professional, cultural and material needs. In achieving its tasks, the UBJ explores the effectiveness of the laws in force and cooperates with other jurists’ organizations, specialized state bodies, scientific institutes and public organizations and participates in international meetings related to its activity.
The UBJ publishes two periodicals “Obshtestvo i pravo” and “Pravna tribuna” to promote the actual legal facts and to provide inside information to its members.
The UBJ is a member of a number of international organizations. Its major international activity is related to two of them – the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and the European Lawyers’ Association for Democracy and Human Rights (EALDH).
In 1993 it was one of the co-founders of the EALDH as a democratic confederation of diverse national associations of democratic lawyers.
The Union has been a member of the IADL since its establishment in 1966. Ever since the UBJ has played an active role in the activities of the association and its representatives are member of the International Bureau. As a result of this long-standing collaboration, the International Conference “Embargo and International Law. Contemporary problems” was organized. It was held in Sofia in 2001.
