Enlightenment, politicisation or mere window dressing? Europeanisation and the use of evidence for policy making in Bulgaria

Evidence-based policy making (EBPM) has been a key pillar of the better regulation agenda of the European Union. However, the extent to which it has genuinely impacted domestic policy making practices has remained largely unexplored. This study sets out to address this gap by focusing on EBPM adoption in settings with historically weak culture of technocratic rationality. To this end, the article proposes a novel analytical framework combining the concept of Europeanisation with insights from the scholarship on knowledge and evidence utilisation. The framework is then applied to the “least likely” case of Bulgaria and its National Climate and Energy Plan for 2021–2030. The article draws on 26 semi-structured interviews to analyse the use of different types of evidence in the Plan’s formulation. The study finds that genuine adoption of EBPM practices remains relatively low with evidence serving predominantly a perfunctory role. In contrast, instrumental and conceptual uses of evidence remain rare. Still, the findings point at the possibility, albeit limited, for gradual Europeanisation and uptake of evidence-based practices even in highly unfavourable conditions. This can be facilitated by a prolonged exposure to evidence-based practices, targeted EU pressure, the establishment of forums facilitating evidence exchange and the presence of “evidence-friendly” individuals within the civil service.