This year Bulgaria marks without much fuss and glamor the 10th anniversary since its entry into the European Union. There are many reasons behind the gloomy atmosphere but the most important one for Bulgarians is that contrary to mainstream expectations and hopes, Brussels was not the magic wand that could turn the poorest EU citizens into average Europeans in a blink of an eye, nor it could stop the abuse and misappropriation committed by the majority of politicians. It was not the factor that could reveal new and brighter horizons and markets to Bulgarian industry and agriculture. None of these dreams turned out to be true but precisely because of the insignificant number of exceptions, they have made quite an impression.

Bulgaria looks more modern, but it is still lagging behind in key industrial sectors. All business charts in the world place Bulgaria at one of the top places when it comes to the poor economic and social indicators. Together with neighbouring Romania, Bulgaria is the only other member state that continues to be under special monitoring from Brussels. And all this against the backdrop of billions of euros that the EU provided to the country through various cohesion programs. The money is not so much keeping in mind that Bulgaria contributed with billions of membership fee to the Union's budget and separately gave more money for the so-called co-financing.

Bulgaria's economy is at the last place in Europe when it comes to productivity and labour costs, as well as to quality and innovation. And not because Bulgaria wants it, but because there is simply no will and money to do it. In the early years of transition from totalitarianism to democracy and market economy, anything that was decent in the industry was sold to obscure owners at low prices and despite all measures of the authorities back then, they were forced to declare bankruptcy of the state because of its inability to pay debts accumulated during communism. Economic assets that were no  longer good for anything slowly vanished.

A crippled economy remained with ten thousand super-rich and 7 million Impoverished Bulgarians who were later to find out that there are things even worse than poverty, such as inaccessible good education or healthcare.

In addition to massive corruption, low qualification, invincible crime, Bulgarians are also the worst paid Europeans who possess almost no capital for investments. This account does not include the hundreds of palaces of the nouveau riche, their planes, yachts and limousines that make impression even on the wealthy Europeans. Yes, there is money but there is none to invest it in the national economy because the money mostly came from smuggling of narcotics, trafficking of people and abuses of power and influence.

Bulgarian economy has been moving forward, but with unsatisfactory pace. For ten years of EU membership GDP per capita has increased by just € 800, while the average salary reached 500 euros.

Bulgarians are getting fewer and fewer. Two million have already left the country, while mortality exceeds birth rate and the population has been aging. But otherwise from high-level offices things do not look this way - GDP growth was above average in Europe, the budget for 2016 marked a surplus. Yes, this is right but at the backdrop of an average pension of 160 euro, monthly fee for heating of 100 euros and more than 2 million Bulgarians who live below the poverty line.

Experts and observers believe that ten years are not enough for accumulating a critical mass of capital and generating higher GDP growth and improving living conditions. Unfortunately, there is no Bulgarian capital while foreign investors are skeptical and very cautious, relying heavily on mobility, ie the ability to quickly move out of the country if necessary.

If things keep going this way the Bulgarian economy will remain for a long time in the periphery of large and stable business whether inside or outside the European Union. We can hope that in the next 10 years something visibly positive both for the state and for its poor citizens would happen.

English: Alexander Markov