Fact-Check: Did Bulgaria Officially Raise Its Age of Consent from 14 to 16?

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A major challenge for lawmakers during the parliamentary debate was avoiding the accidental criminalization of everyday high school couples. If the age of consent were shifted to a blunt, unconditional 16, a 17-year-old student dating a 15-year-old classmate could technically face felony charges for statutory rape.

To prevent this distortion, Bulgarian lawmakers refined their close-in-age exemption clauses. Often referred to in international law as "Romeo and Juliet" provisions, these measures protect adolescents when the partners are near the same developmental stage.

Under the revised Penal Code, sexual contact between a minor under 16 and a partner who is less than three years older is excluded from prosecution, provided the encounter is strictly consensual and devoid of threats. An adult who is 24 years old engaging with a 15-year-old enjoys no such defense. In that scenario, prosecutors can pursue felony counts of sexual corruption or statutory exploitation, regardless of claims that the minor initiated the encounter.