Sofia, Bulgaria · Low emission zone
Official name Зона „Голям ринг“ — зона с ниски емисии на вредни вещества
Not in force in Sofia right nowTuesday, 13 October 2026 at 12:04 · Europe/Sofia
This encoding cannot tell you your eco group, and the eco group is the whole of the test. It is assigned at the Bulgarian periodic roadworthiness inspection from the Euro category, the date of first registration AND the carbon monoxide or smoke opacity measured on the day, so it cannot be derived from the vehicle's paperwork alone.
Only eco group one is banned here in the 2026/27 season. Group two is banned in the inner ring, Малък ринг, which lies entirely inside this zone — so a group two vehicle may be legal on this ring's edge and illegal in the centre. From 1 December 2027 group two is banned here as well.
The season is split at month boundaries in this encoding, which is exact: the ordinance's own window is 1 December to the last day of February, so no day falls between the rule and its exception and none is covered by both.
Inside the season there is no free hour. The ordinance sets no times, so a restricted vehicle is banned at every hour of every day including Sundays.
No public holiday is excepted. The ordinance names none, so this encoding declares no holiday rule rather than inventing one, and Bulgaria has no sourced holiday calendar in this corpus in any case.
The mayor of Столична община may open the zone temporarily by order for a notified event (article 7). Those orders are case by case and are not published as a calendar, so they are not encoded.
The ordinance does not say whether a vehicle driving ALONG one of the thirteen boundary roads is inside the zone or outside it. It says only that the zone is "оградена от" them. Treat the boundary roads as inside.
Operating times only, read from the source below. It does not check your vehicle.
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.
Столичен общински съвет — Наредба за създаване на зони с ниски емисии на вредни вещества в атмосферния въздух на територията на Столична община, consolidated text from the register of normative acts Столична община links to as its own. Article 9(1)(2) delimits this ring and article 11(1)(2) sets its phasing: group one from 1 December 2025, group two added from 1 December 2027
There is no charge, and that is the scheme rather than a gap in our reading. The ordinance creates a забрана — a prohibition — and prices nothing: no day pass, no ticket, no toll and no payment channel appears anywhere in its twenty-four articles, and the operator's page offers registration for the exempt rather than a way to buy access.
Read it the way Edinburgh and Dundee are read, not the way Birmingham is: a car in eco group one may not be inside this ring between 1 December and the end of February, and money does not change that.
The only money in the scheme is the fine for being there, which is in the penalty field. ⚠️ The local paid-parking vignette is a parking product, not an entry charge — holding one exempts a resident, but a non-resident cannot buy their way in with it.
Three months a year, and then round the clock — the same window as the inner ring, because it is the same article. Article 11(1) of the ordinance introduces the ban "в периода от 01 декември на съответната календарна година до последния ден на месец февруари на следващата я календарна година": 1 December of the given calendar year to the last day of February of the next.
Inside that window the ordinance names no hours, no weekday distinction and no holiday exception, and article 17 puts the zones under "постоянно, денонощно видеонаблюдение" — permanent round-the-clock video surveillance. So for a restricted vehicle the answer is the same at 03:00 on a Sunday as at 08:00 on a Tuesday. Outside 1 December to 28 or 29 February the zone does not operate on vehicles at all.
The operator, Център за градска мобилност, announces each season before it starts and states the closing date: its announcement for the season that began on 1 December 2025 — the first season this ring ever restricted anything — reads "Забраната важи до 28 февруари 2026 г." One opening exists and it is discretionary: article 7 lets the mayor of Столична община allow access to the zones by order, temporarily, for a properly notified event.
That is not a timetable and is not encoded.
Столичен общински съвет — the ordinance's article 11(1) for the seasonal window, article 17(1) for round-the-clock surveillance and article 7 for the mayor's temporary opening. The ordinance names no hour of the day and no public holiday anywhere in its text
The outer of Sofia's two rings, delimited by the council in one sentence: "Зона "Голям ринг" - зоната, оградена от: 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.
"X. Ибсен", бул. "П.
Ю. Тодоров", бул. "И.
Е. Гешов", бул. "К.
Величков"." Thirteen roads enclosing about 17 km² — central Sofia plus the inner suburbs from Лъвов мост round by Орлов мост, Борисовата градина, Иван Гешов and Красно село. We hold the polygon and it was admitted on that list rather than on its name: the OpenStreetMap relation tagged boundary=low_emission_zone with this zone's name has 189 member ways, and all thirteen of the council's roads are on it.
The ways stitch into one closed ring of 16.975 km². ⚠️ One road on the ring is NOT in the ordinance — Проф. Кръстьо Мирски, two ways, closing the gap between the single way tagged Люба Величкова and Сребърна.
It is recorded rather than removed: cutting ways out of somebody else's published shape would be our own redrawing of it. ⚠️ And one question the ordinance does not answer: whether a vehicle driving along one of the thirteen boundary roads is inside the zone or outside. Bucharest legislates that edge and Столична община does not; assume the boundary roads are inside.
This zone CONTAINS the Малък ринг zone, whose rule is stricter — a vehicle in the centre is inside both, and the inner rule decides. Keep separate, finally, that the same ordinance declares the entire municipality a low emission zone for a different purpose in article 10(1): the burning of solid fuel for домашно отопление, a heating rule that restricts no vehicle anywhere.
Столичен общински съвет — article 9(1)(2) of the ordinance, which delimits this ring road by road, and article 10(1), which separately declares the whole municipality a low emission zone for solid-fuel domestic heating
Eco group two or better is required in this zone in the 2026/27 season: only group one is banned. For a petrol car the group is not the Euro class by itself. Наредба № Н-32, article 37a(1)(1), sorts spark-ignition M1 and N1 vehicles by Euro category, date of first registration and the carbon monoxide measured in the exhaust at idle, all three together.
Group one — the only group banned here today — is a car with no Euro category first registered up to 1 July 1992 with CO up to 4.5%, or a Euro 1 or Euro 2 car registered up to 1 January 1996 with CO up to 3.5%. Group two, which is allowed here but not in the inner ring, is Euro 1, 2 or 3 registered between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 2007 with CO up to 0.5% at low idle and 0.3% at high idle.
Group three is Euro 3 to Euro 6 registered from 1 July 2002 with CO up to 0.3% and 0.2%; group four is Euro 4 to Euro 7 registered from 1 September 2009 with CO up to 0.2% and 0.1%; group five is battery electric, fuel-cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles, never restricted here. Three rules cut the other way.
A vehicle that lands in no group after the measurement is put in group one — so a failed or missing measurement is the worst outcome, not a neutral one. A spark-ignition vehicle never fitted with emission control from the factory is group one whatever its age. And a vehicle less than three years old is put in the highest group its propulsion allows without being measured.
From 1 December 2027 group two is banned in this zone as well.
Министерство на транспорта — Наредба № Н-32 от 16.12.2011 г. за периодичните прегледи за проверка на техническата изправност на пътните превозни средства, article 37a, the instrument the Sofia ordinance names as the one that assigns a vehicle its eco group. Consolidated text from the same APIS register, State Gazette issue 62 of 2026
Eco group two or better, the same threshold as petrol — but reached by a different table, and a diesel usually sits a group lower than the petrol equivalent of the same Euro class. Наредба № Н-32, article 37a(1)(2), sorts compression-ignition M1 and N1 vehicles by Euro category, date of first registration and smoke opacity measured at the test.
Group one — the only group banned here today — is a diesel with no Euro category or Euro 1, 2 or 3, first registered up to 31 December 2002, with opacity up to 2.5 m⁻¹ naturally aspirated or 3.0 m⁻¹ turbocharged. That band is wide: a Euro 3 diesel can be in group one and therefore banned from this zone.
Group two, allowed here but not in the inner ring, is Euro 3, 4, 5 or EEV registered between 1 January 2000 and 1 January 2007 with opacity up to 1.5 m⁻¹. Group three is Euro 4 to Euro 6 from 1 January 2005 with opacity up to 0.7 m⁻¹, group four Euro 5, EEV, Euro 6 or Euro 7 from 1 September 2009 with opacity up to 0.5 m⁻¹.
The measurement can demote a vehicle its paperwork would place higher, and the same three side rules apply as for petrol: no group after measurement means group one, and a vehicle under three years old is placed in the highest group for its propulsion without measurement. From 1 December 2027 group two is banned here as well.
Министерство на транспорта — Наредба № Н-32 от 16.12.2011 г., article 37a(1)(2), the compression-ignition table. Same consolidated text and register as the petrol scale
Народно събрание — Закон за чистотата на атмосферния въздух, article 41a(2). The city's ordinance sets no penalty of its own: article 22(1) says offenders "се наказват съгласно чл. 41а и чл. 41б от Закона за чистотата на атмосферния въздух", and article 41a(2) of that Act penalises a person who breaches measures, prohibitions and restrictions adopted under article 28a — the provision this ordinance is made under — with a fine of 50 to 500 leva for an individual, or a property sanction of 200 to 1,000 leva for a legal person. The figure recorded here is the ceiling of the individual's band, not a fixed ticket: the floor is 50 leva and the band is per offence. Consolidated text as published in State Gazette issue 55 of 2026, in force from 20 June 2026, which states the amounts in leva. ⚠️ Doubling for a repeat offence does NOT apply to this paragraph: article 41a(3) doubles the fine "при повторно нарушение по ал. 1" only, and driving in a low emission zone is paragraph 2. Article 41b names the officials: the findings are drawn up by staff authorised by the mayor of the municipality, the penal decrees are issued by the mayor, and the money goes into that municipality's own budget. Article 23 of the city ordinance adds who pays — the owner of the vehicle, or the person it was given to use, and the owner pays if they do not say who was driving
Столичен общински съвет — the ordinance itself for the exemption classes, the application procedure, the seven-day duty, the surveillance and the signage; and Център за градска мобилност ЕАД, the operator Столична община appointed, for the offices, the opening hours, the electronic route and the statement that residents of this ring may not pass through Малък ринг during the ban
Столичен общински съвет — Наредба за създаване на зони с ниски емисии на вредни вещества в атмосферния въздух на територията на Столична община, consolidated text. The whole scheme in one document: article 9 delimits both rings, article 11 sets the season and the phasing, articles 15 to 21 the camera enforcement, article 22 the penalty reference. It also carries its own in-force evidence, printed above the text by the publisher: on 10 February 2025 the Върховен административен съд, by decision № 1031 in case № 2591/2024, upheld the Sofia administrative court's rejection of a challenge to article 3, chapters two and four, and article 22 of this ordinance. ⚠️ Watched strings on this endpoint must not contain a double quote: the body is HTML inside a JSON string, so the ordinance's quotation marks around a zone or a boulevard name arrive as \" and a needle written the way a reader sees it would be reported missing from a page that had not changed
Столична община — the act sheet for the ordinance in its own register of normative acts, served as JSON. This is the version pointer, and it is watched for a specific reason: the register does NOT move its isActual field when an act is repealed — 46 acts filed under „Нормативни актове - отменени“ all still read isActual 1 — so the field that does move is the CAPTION, to which the register appends „(отм.)“. The watched string therefore takes the caption's ending together with the JSON key that follows it, so a repeal breaks it. endDate is null and startDate is 2022-12-15
Народно събрание — Закон за чистотата на атмосферния въздух, consolidated to State Gazette issue 55 of 2026. Article 28a is the enabling power the ordinance is made under and article 41a(2) is the penalty for breaching a measure adopted under it; article 41b names the mayor as the issuing authority and sends the money to the municipal budget
Министерство на транспорта — Наредба № Н-32 от 16.12.2011 г., article 37a. The five eco groups, both engine tables, and the three rules that demote a vehicle: no group after measurement means group one, no factory emission control means group one, and under three years old means the highest group without measurement
Център за градска мобилност ЕАД — the operator Столична община appointed for the scheme, on its own page „Зони с ниски емисии на вредни вещества“. It carries the driver-facing half: both rings road by road, who may enter regardless of eco group, the documents each class must file, the three offices and their 08:30–17:00 hours, the electronic filing route, and the map of the zones. ⚠️ Carries NO watched strings, and the reason is new to this corpus: sofiatraffic.bg is an Inertia.js application that puts its ENTIRE body inside one HTML attribute — data-page on a single div — with the Cyrillic JSON-escaped inside it. The monitor strips tags, so 1.6 MB of page normalises to seventeen characters, and every watched string, Cyrillic or ASCII, would be reported missing from a page that had not changed. scripts/bg-sofiatraffic.mjs is what reads it
Център за градска мобилност ЕАД — the operator's dated announcement for the 2025/26 season, „От 1 декември влизат в сила правилата на нискоемисионната зона за автомобили в „Малък ринг“ и в нов „Голям ринг““, published 23 October 2025. This is the first season this ring ever restricted a vehicle, and the announcement is what states its closing date of 28 February 2026 and the rule that residents of Голям ринг may not pass through Малък ринг during the ban. The equivalent announcement for the 2026/27 season is what the next reading of this record should look for. No watched strings, for the same reason as the page above
Next scheduled re-check: 2026-11-15.
A city can run more than one scheme, and they do not always answer the same question.