The Economic Research Institute with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences has presented its report on the state of the Bulgarian economy 10 years after Bulgaria’s EU accession. The major conclusion is that this country has been marking progress across all sectors, but at a different pace. Experts say that Bulgaria’s policies in HR and regional development have been the greatest failure over the past years. At the same time the fiscal, bank and tax policies are considered successful. Former Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov paid attention to this in his speech – he is one of the poll’s reviewers. He also pointed at the growing problem with regional inequality here:

“The positive thing, outlined by the authors of the analysis is that the EU accession and especially the eastern and southern one had its idea – discipline. However, Bulgaria had already had this discipline in its fiscal and bank policy – due to the coping with a previous crisis and the implementation of the currency board. The minus came from the fact that our a bit delayed EU entry coincided nearly with the start of the latest major financial crisis. If there had been no such crisis… well, I don’t say that things would have been glorious, but there would definitely have been greater focus not on the overall development of the Bulgarian economy, but on the development of regional inequality.”

According to Dyankov, while the EU was often talking about multi-speed development, that thing had already been happening in Bulgaria. The economic development in Sofia has now reached the average for the EU. On the other hand, this country hosts the regions that top the rankings in terms of lowest economic and living standard. This all comes not only as a result of the percentage of EU funding used, but of the way and goals of this spending. The former finance minister also wished Bulgaria’s joining to the ERM2 mechanism as of the next year – the first step to the Eurozone candidacy. However, he is skeptic that this will happen.

Former deputy premier with the Oresharski government Associate Prof. Daniela Bobeva says on the other hand that the financial crisis which has had its impact on all the sectors, cannot be the constant excuse for the poor economic integration. In her opinion the hesitations, concerning its growth come as a result of the partial usage of the resources. The demographic crisis and the lack of manpower, skilled enough also have their impact.

The conclusions of the BAS Economic Research Institute’s report show that the country should take a more active stance in terms of European and national reforms, as this will mobilize the economy and will protect it from risks. Besides that the EU membership benefits are much greater and much more visible when the country is among the active EU member-states.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev