CODE OF ETHICS

OF THE MEMBERS OF ASSOCIATION "CULINARY ARTS AND HOSPITALITY"

DOBRICH
2012

In pursuance of Article 15, paragraph 1, section 2 of the Statute of the Association «Culinary Arts and Hospitality» / AKIG / the General Assembly of AKIG has adopted the following Code of Ethics for members of the Association "Culinary Arts and Hospitality", the norms which according to Articles 11, section 1 of the Statute of AKIG are mandatory for all members of the association.

1. AKIG accepts this Code of Ethics that through the underlying principles and rules to regulate the behavior and relationships of association members in the performance of their duties as among themselves and with non-legal individuals, with various government and other institutions and establishments.
2. This Code sets out rules of conduct for the organizations in Association "Culinary Arts and Hospitality" that follow generally accepted human, moral and business standards of conduct, and aims to increase public confidence in their professionalism and ethics, as well as the prestige of Cluster "Culinary Arts and Hospitality".
3. Adoption and application of this Code enhances the prestige of AKIG and guarantees the quality of products and services offered by its members.
4. The Code is an integral part of the Statute of AKIG and its compliance is mandatory norm for all members of the association.
5. With the adoption of the Code each former member of the association declares that accepts and will comply with this Code.
6. This Code is based on the following principles and values:
1. professional competence and responsibility;
2. honesty, integrity, ethics, loyalty and good faith;
3. tolerance;
4. mutual assistance;
5. initiative, and continued upward development of AKIG;
6. collegiality;
7. legality;
8. political neutrality;
9. fairness and impartiality.
7. Non-observance of these principles and requirements undercuts the credibility of our members, customers, suppliers, employees and others. and damages and serious threats to both our competitiveness and prestige, and our upward development.
8. Each member of AKIG pledges:
- To strictly observe the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria. Violation of laws and regulations for personal gain or a competitive advantage is considered a gross violation of this Code and the conditions for membership in the association.
- To be loyal in its relationships with the colleagues from the association.
- To be loyal and honest to customers to inform them correctly. Not to submit misleading information.
To observe the principle of non-violation interest of its colleagues when they are not in violation of the law.
- To work continuously to promote the good image of the association and not to prejudice its interests.
- To be acquainted with and to comply with its obligations under the law, the Statute of Association and the Code.
- To strictly comply with the above principles and norms of behavior and to constantly work on its strengthening.
- To respect and protect the reputation of the members of the association as a whole and not to allow into its business activities activities, actions in terms of Chapter VII of the LPC that contradict the rules of fair trade practice and to prejudice the interests of other members of the association.
- To take no action that would harm the trust in the other members of the association as well as the services offered by allegations, distribution of data or presentation of facts in a distorted form.
- To treat strictly confidential to all information received from the other members during the business relationships, not to make it available to third parties and not to use it to the detriment of other party.
- Not to submit its own product in a way that could mislead and influence customer behavior, and also not to use the data on the superiority of its services by comparing or assigning nonexistent flaws of services offered by other members of the association.
- To contribute to the implementation and to benefit from common business initiatives and proposals realized by the association.
- Not to allow in the work with clients actions that do not meet the requirements of good faith and lead to a significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of the consumer and the trader in the sense of Chapter V of the LCPTR and of Article 34 of the LPC.
9. Members of the administrative or management body of AKIG accept moral obligation in any form not to use its position in the association to receive any advantage or benefit from the company / organization that led.
10. Members must devote sufficient time to the events of the association, to provide the information required by the governing bodies of AKIG.
11. To ensure the transparency of its activities, organizations in AKIG clearly define and provide public access to:
• Mission and objectives of AKIG;
• Means of achieving the objectives (priorities, strategies, activities, programs);
• Governance structure of AKIG (Statute, composition of the supreme and the governing body);
• The process of decision-making (rules, regulation for holding competitions);
12. Members of AKIG desiderate for regularly informing the public about the results of their actions and emerging issues, to seek solidarity and support, explaining its meaning for the public good.
13. Members of AKIG strictly observe all legal requirements, the requirements of its donors and relevant funding programs;
14. Members of AKIG report publicly their activity, indicating the sources and amounts funding received and donations (if donors wish to remain anonymous it is indicated only the amount of funding), ways of spending - activities, programs, projects and results achieved;
15. In providing funding and fundraising, organizations in AKIG ensure that:
- All fund-raising activities and the receipt of funds as well as its utilization are in accordance with the mission and goals of the organizations;
- When applying to funding programs with project, organizations represent themselves, their activities and the activities planned realistically and expressly mention its partners and donors and do not mislead about its past achievements and results planned;
- Received donations and funding are used strictly for the purpose for which are awarded;
- Campaigns for the fundraising must be actual rather than fictitious, providing correct information for organizations that carry them out, and for the use of funds raised.
- The organizations publicly announce the revenue raised from the campaign and the cost of its implementation.
- Not to participate in schemes of money laundering, corrupt practices, scam and terrorist activities and to inform authorities of the proposals received for participation in such acts.
16. Members of AKIG strive in every action to avoid situations of conflict of interest.
17. In the provision and use of information related to their activities, members are required to:
- To interpret objectivity and credibly the data and the results of its various studies, analyzes, etc.;
- To represent, distribute and use associated with its business, information in a misleading way;
- Accurately cite sources of information;
- To respect the intellectual property rights;
- Provide public access to the products of its activity after accounting for the projects to donors.
18. In the relationship with political parties, members of AKIG:
- Can participate in the political process - as far as part of the legitimate obligations of the organizations are to influence policy in the public interest. However organizations never put partisan purposes and do not operate in favor of political parties and party interests;
- Do not protect party interests;
- Do not operate in favor of political parties and party interests;
- Do not finance and raise funds for the benefit of political parties;
- Do not carry out lobbying for narrow partisan purposes.
19. In the relationship with business, members of AKIG:
- are guided by the public interest and do not protect and do not operate in the protection of individual corporate business interests;
- do not build relationships with individual trader who appears in contradiction with the Law on Protection of Competition;
- do not lobby for certain corporate and individual business interests.
20. In interactions with civil authorities, members of AKIG adhere to the following principles:
- Upon receipt and expenditure of public funds organizations observe the highest standards of accountability and publicly announce that spend taxpayers' money of the Republic of Bulgaria or another country;
- Organizations involved in the planning and management of public funds are not involved in its absorption.
- When organizations use public property for implementation of its activity, they do not change its purpose.
- Relations with public authorities are based on dialogue, tolerance, mutual respect and responsibility.
- In interaction with public authorities, organizations do not compromise the mission, principles and values for the sake of short term gaining sympathy and dividends.
- The tone of communication of the organizations with public authorities should be honest and not be deliberately confrontational, but those advocated by organizations should be defended strongly on the basis of convincing legal standards and best practices.
21. Members of AKIG share its resources - experts, analytics, etc. in terms of joint activities and campaigns;
22. Commitments regarding corruption:
- members of AKIG do not achieve any of its goals for providing services or to influence the public policies by offering bribes to officials;
- when applying for projects at national or European institutions, members of AKIG compete solely on the basis of their competence and are not available to anyone in any form of means of providing precedence about their project.
23. All members of AKIG, regular and associates, shall undertake most strictly to observe the Law on Protection of Competition for which, except as sanctions provided by law, bear the responsibility before the association.
24. As ineligible activities within the meaning of this Code of Ethics shall be construed and:
- any action or behavior in doing business that are contrary to good practice and harm the interests of competitors in their mutual relations or in their relations with customers;
- the manipulative and misleading price offering of goods and services discrepant to the market;
- the supply of goods and services with lower quality in order to reduce the price-formation and manipulative customer acquisition.
- any advertisement or other public appearance, creating a false or exaggerated notion of the quality, the conditions and the nature of the activity.
25. AKIG has the right make available on request from third party information relating to the nature of the activities of its members, after obtaining the written consent of the interested party. Information should be provided so as to reflect the objective reality and in any form not give advantages to one company over another.
26. For this purpose AKIG creates and maintains a public register of information for its members. The information is collected and updated on the basis of the information given by each company member, information certified by its leader, who is responsible for the accuracy of the data.
27. Incorrect presentation of information or submission of false and misleading information as to its own activities and the activities of other member firms of AKIG is inconsistent with ethical standards and is considered as a violation who is liable to approve. This applies both the submission of information to maintain a public register of AKIG and for providing it to third legal or natural persons.
28. Each member of AKIG may provide in the offices of the association information that affects the interests of members of AKIG. Such information could be linked to technological developments, government regulations and any other information concerning the common interests.
29. Members of AKIG are not required and it can not be required the information from them that is internal and can be a trade secret of the company.
30. Each member of AKIG must notify by the association the other companies, in the event that learn information that harms the interests of the association as a whole or the company / organization, its members.
31. At failure to observe the standards of conduct in this code organizations and employees have a responsibility to other organizations from AKIG and the governing body of the association, under the current law. Unlike the rules under the relevant legislation, for such ethical standards are not necessary the "hard evidence". It is sufficient the firm belief (reasonable assumption) that there are serious doubts that they are violated.
32. Control over compliance with the rules of fair competition and professional ethics is assigned to the Ethics Committee consisting of three members, whose members are elected by the General Assembly for a term of four years. Chairman of the Ethics Committee shall be a Chairman of the Board. Committee members have equal rights in the discussion and decision-making. Each member of the Commission shall be entitled to one vote.
33. Ethics Committee consider the information received and complaints relating to compliance with this Code. If a committee member is a party to the appeal, the same does not participate in its consideration.
34. Ethics Committee examine and analyze each case of violation of this Code of Ethics and report to the Management Board of the Association.
35. Any interested company / organization may file a complaint with the Ethics Commission. The Commission may consider an issue on its own initiative and by received information from a member of the association, client, partner.
36. When establishing any breach of this Code by the Ethics Committee, it shall draw up a proposal to the General Assembly of AKIG to impose sanctions on violators, including expulsion from the association.
37. Types of penalties - depending on the severity of the offense proved, the Ethics Commission may propose to the General Assembly the following sanctions:
- warning;
- final warning (before imposing heavier penalties);
- Withdrawal the right out loud at the General Meeting of the Association for a specified period or permanently;
- Exclusion from the Association for a specified period of time or permanently.
38. Proposed by the Ethics Commission sanctions for proven violation of the Code of Ethics are voted by a simple majority of the General Assembly at its next session.
39. When proven breach and where applicable, the General Assembly may decide to inform the Bulgarian and foreign institutions involved in the violation of the rights of consumers and the protection of fair competition, and to notify the competent state authorities.

40. Decisions of the Ethics Commission to impose sanctions may be appealed in writing to the General Assembly of AKIG. Decisions of the General Assembly of AKIG in these cases are final.
41. With its vote to adopt the Code, every member of the association declares that it accepts and will comply with this Code of Ethics.
42. When first entering the Association "Culinary Arts and Hospitality" representatives of the management and / or administrative body of the cluster should to familiarize new-organization with the provisions of this Code.
43. The update of the code is performed on proposals made to the Ethics Commission, which in turn shall examine them and submit for voting of the General Assembly. Changes are deemed to be accepted if they are usually adopted by a majority vote of the General Assembly.

This Code of Conduct was adopted by the General Assembly of Association "Culinary Arts and Hospitality" on 17.10.2012 and is obligatory for all founders, current and future members of AKIG.