2 schemes in 1 city. Every figure comes from an official source and is re-checked.
Bulgaria has 2 driving restrictions that we have checked against an official source, in 1 city. All are low emission zones.
This page lists no country-wide requirement for Bulgaria. Anything owed before you reach a city is not covered here, so check the national road authority before you leave.
The sources for this country were read on 2026-09-16, from the authorities' own pages. Each check is repeated on a schedule, and a rule we can no longer confirm comes down instead of staying up.
| Scheme | City | Kind | Fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Зона „Голям ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества | Sofia | Low emission zone | 500.00 BGN |
| Зона „Малък ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества | Sofia | Low emission zone | 500.00 BGN |
Sofia has 2 driving restrictions on our books: the Зона „Голям ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества (low emission zone) and the Зона „Малък ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества (low emission zone). What is a low emission zone?
Sources last read on 2026-09-16, from the authorities' own pages. The next scheduled check is 2026-11-15.
| Scheme | Kind | Fine |
|---|---|---|
| Зона „Голям ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества | low emission zone | 500.00 BGN |
| Зона „Малък ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества | low emission zone | 500.00 BGN |
The outer of Sofia's two low emission rings, and the newer one: it first restricted a vehicle on 1 December 2025, two years after the inner ring did. „Голям ринг“ is the area enclosed by thirteen named roads — бул. Сливница, бул.
Данаил Николаев, бул. Ситняково, бул. Михай Еминеску, бул.
П. Яворов, бул. Никола Й.
Вапцаров, ул. Атанас Дуков, ул. Люба Величкова, ул.
Сребърна, бул. Х. Ибсен, бул.
П. Ю. Тодоров, бул.
И. Е. Гешов and бул.
К. Величков — roughly 17 km² covering central Sofia and the inner suburbs around it. From 1 December of each year to the last day of February of the next, cars and vans in the FIRST Bulgarian eco group may not drive in it.
That is the only difference from the inner ring and it is the difference that matters: group two is still allowed here, and is not allowed in Малък ринг, which sits wholly inside this zone. From 1 December 2027 group two is banned here too, and this zone then matches the inner ring as it stands today. There is no charge and no day pass — it is a ban.
Everything else is shared with the inner ring, because both come from one instrument, the Столична община ordinance on creating low emission zones, adopted by council decision № 931 of 15 December 2022 and in force since 1 December 2023.
The test is the Bulgarian eco group, assigned at the periodic roadworthiness inspection from the Euro category, the date of first registration and the carbon monoxide or smoke opacity measured on the day — not the Euro class alone, and a vehicle that lands in no group at all is treated as group one.
The exemptions are residency and disability rather than vehicle: residents of the ring holding the local paid-parking vignette, residents who register with Център за градска мобилност, and holders of a disabled parking card. Emergency vehicles and public passenger transport are outside the ordinance entirely. Enforcement is round-the-clock camera surveillance and the fine comes from national law.
One warning the operator gives in its own words and this record repeats: living inside Голям ринг does not let you drive through Малък ринг during the ban.
Penalty 500.00 BGN
Bulgaria enters this corpus on a low emission zone that only exists for three months of the year. Sofia has two concentric rings and this is the inner one, the ring the city calls „Малък ринг“, bounded by бул. Васил Левски, бул.
Патриарх Евтимий, бул. Ген. Скобелев, ул.
Опълченска and бул. Сливница — about 3.4 km² around the centre. From 1 December of each year to the last day of February of the next, cars and vans in the first and second Bulgarian eco groups may not drive in it at all.
There is no charge, no day pass and no barrier: this is a ban. Outside those three months the zone does not operate, and a driver who reads a Sofia map in June will find nothing to obey. Two things make it unlike most zones in this corpus.
The test is not the Euro class on its own.
Bulgaria sorts M1 and N1 vehicles into five eco groups at the periodic roadworthiness test, and the group depends on the Euro category, on the date of first registration AND on the carbon monoxide or smoke opacity actually measured on the day — so two Euro 3 cars of the same year can end up in different groups, and any car that fails to land in a group at all falls into the first.
The second is the phasing, which is written into the ordinance years in advance: group one was banned here from 1 December 2023, group two was added from 1 December 2024, and group three follows from 1 December 2028. That makes the 2026/27 season the same as the last one — groups one and two — with no further act needed.
The exemptions are narrow and none of them is about the vehicle: residents of the ring who hold the local paid-parking vignette are free of it, as are residents without one who register with Център за градска мобилност, and holders of a disabled parking card. Emergency vehicles and public passenger transport are outside the ordinance entirely, and the mayor may open the zone by order for a declared event.
Enforcement is round-the-clock camera surveillance, and the fine is set by national law rather than by the city. The ordinance survived a court challenge: on 10 February 2025 the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the rejection of a challenge to article 3, chapters two and four, and article 22 of this very instrument.
One caution about geography: the same ordinance makes the whole municipality a low emission zone for burning solid fuel at home, which has nothing to do with driving, and the outer ring — „Голям ринг“ — is a separate, weaker restriction held as its own record here.
Penalty 500.00 BGN