Svetlana Ganeva is one of the founders and managing partner at Arsov Natchev Ganeva, having over 25 years of professional experience in a broad array of legal fields including corporate and commercial law, foreign investments, concessions, PPP and public procurements, aviation law, water law and EU law.
Svetlana Ganeva has developed an unrivaled expertise in the project finance, PPP and concessions in Bulgaria. She has been involved as legal advisor in most major concession projects in the country. Ms. Ganeva has been assigned by the Bulgarian government to lead teams of legal, financial and technical experts in the preparation of several concession projects, including projects aiming to amend the effective concession legislation. She has also represented private companies in their participation in concession tenders as well as advised on a regular basis concession companies on their legal compliance and relations with the competent authorities.
Ms. Ganeva frequently provides highly sophisticated advice on the structuring of project finance and PPP projects within the specifics of Bulgarian legal environment. On the international arena, Svetlana Ganeva is a member of the UNECE Roster of PPP Experts and is often sought as an expert on international and European concession and PPP surveys.
Svetlana Ganeva is a leading advisor to companies in connection with their participation in large scale multi-million public procurement procedures. She has extensive experience advising and representing international and domestic businesses before the Commission for protection of the competition and the Supreme Administrative Court in procurement matters.
Svetlana Ganeva assists clients in regulatory and transactional matters in the aviation industry. She has handled a wide variety of complex litigation matters for ground handling operators before Bulgarian courts and EU institutions, including airport access, competition and EU legislation compliance. Svetlana Ganeva’s aviation experience further includes work as legal counsel to major Bulgarian airport operators and airlines.
Ms. Ganeva’s clients in the water and sanitation sector comprise both private entities and public authorities. She advises Bulgarian and international companies - operators of water and waste water services, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, international consultancy firms on projects of the World Bank in Bulgaria and others.
In the EU law and regulation arena, Ms. Ganeva has actively participated in the implementation in Bulgaria of EU legislation from the pre-accession period of the country until now in the fields of climate change, water and sanitation, state aid, concession, PPP, strategic policy making and coordination. Ms. Ganeva represents local and European companies from various industries with respect to regulatory and licensing issues, antitrust and competition, state aid, before both national courts and European court of Justice, as well as acts in the context of infringement and interpretation proceedings before the EC. She advises businesses on Bulgarian and EU antitrust laws and compliance, and provides assistance to her clients in investigations and relevant proceedings. Particular strengths of her work include drafting legislation in different fields of law, advising Bulgarian public bodies and local administrations in the implementation of different European programs, measures and initiatives for absorption of European funds, interaction with the EC, preparation of notifications and participation in the relevant proceedings for exemption of state aid. Thanks to this background and experience, the ANG team headed by Mrs. Ganeva has been regularly selected in European calls for consultants and awarded contracts for training of Bulgarian magistrates in the variety of fields, such as competition, state aid, EU law and regulations, etc.
Membership/Admissions
Sofia Bar Association
International Bar Association
European Women Lawyers’ Association
Officer of the National Order of Merit of the French Republic (Officier de l Ordre National du Merite)
Qualification and education
Center for European studies, University of Nancy, France, LLM in European Law and European Political Studies
Sofia University, Faculty of law, Master of Law
Languages
Bulgarian, English, French, Portuguese
• Leader of the ANG’s team that provided legal assistance on State aid matters to the Fund manager of financial instruments, on a program for financial support to Bulgarian municipalities in urban development projects;
• served as team leader of ANG‘s team that consulted the Ministry of Finance in the implementation of a Project for improving the effective application in Bulgaria of EU State Aid Rules on services of general economic interest;
• served as team leader of a pool of experts advising the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport in relation to the preparation of Varna port concession;
• acting as principal legal advisor to Veolia Group and its Bulgarian subsidiaries Sofiyska Voda AD and Veolia Energy Solutions Bulgaria on variety of day-to-day business matters on the domains water law, energy law, concession law and other regulatory matters;
• leads ANG’s team responsible for provision of legal support to the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters in cases of implementation of EU Operational program ‘Environment’;
• advises on a permanent basis the Bulgarian subsidiary of Sodexo Pass on its regulatory compliance with the rules applicable to food vouchers and social benefits delivery, including litigating in competition law matters before the Commission for Protection of Competition and the Bulgarian administrative courts.
• advises a large international group producer of locomotives and wagons on public procurements matters;
• Leads ANG’s team on several consecutive contracts for consultants, awarded from EC, including but not only contracts for training of Bulgarian magistrates in the fields of competition, state aid, EU law and regulations;
• acted as legal adviser to the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Waters in the process of drafting of the Bulgarian Regulations for setting up of the EU greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme and the Joint Implementation Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol;
• Provided legal support to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in a number of cases involving interaction with the EC on compliance matters while implementing financial measures from relevant European programs and funds;
• Representing the State fund of agriculture on litigations against final beneficiaries of EU funds breaching the respective agreements;
• represented an international consortium - candidate in a procedure for award of concession of Sofia Airport;
• acted as principal legal consultant of the Ministry of Transport and Communications during the tender procedure for granting a concession of Varna and Burgas airports;
• served as team leader of a pool of experts advising the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications in relation to the preparation of the Plovdiv Airport concession project;
• represented an international consortium - candidate in a concession procedure for granting of concession of Rousse civil airport;
• advised the Bulgarian Council of Ministers on a large scale project for review of concession and PPP regulation and good practices in 8 EU member states for the purposes of improvement of the PPP forms and regulation in Bulgaria;
• acted as Bulgarian legal expert in an EBRD financed project on comparative assessment of the legislation in the field of concessions;
• acted as legal expert in a World Bank project within the Advisory Program for the Development and Implementation of a Water Supply and Sanitation Strategy in connection with the implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste-water treatment;
• represented the successful bidder - in the course of a procedure for public procurement related to the manufacture and delivery of a dozen new helicopters for the needs of Bulgarian Air Forces and Navy;
• represented the Bulgarian subsidiary of Swissport International before the EC in a procedure against Bulgaria for infringement of EU law by failing to apply Council Directive 96/67/EC on access to the ground-handling market at Community airports;
• represented Swissport Bulgaria before the Commission for Protection of the Competition and the Supreme Administrative Court concerning abuse of dominant position and price dumping policy based on an infringement of the Council Directive 96/67/EC;
• acted as a leader of the legal team in a large scale project assigned by the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works for provision of specialized consultancy services related to the implementation of new strategic legislation in the water sector in Bulgaria;
• served as team leader of a pool of legal experts providing consultancy services to the Bulgarian Investment Promotion Agency within the framework of the project ‘Promoting the advantages of investing in Bulgaria’;
• acted as legal expert in the implementation of the Management of Unit Integrated Urban Transport Project, launched by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works;
• represented successfully the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and its Road Infrastructure Agency in all stages of major arbitration proceedings against a large road construction company heard by the International Court of Arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.