Bulgaria

At least once a year Eurostat confirms through fresh data that Bulgaria is the poorest nation in the EU. More specifically, we are talking about comparisons of GDP per capita according to purchasing power parity.

Several years of caretaker governance, frequent elections, and inability to form a stable, legitimate, and broadly supported coalition suffice for breaking the spirit of many who believe Bulgaria could thrive as a proper democracy, and the result of the April 2023 general election also points in the same direction.

The Bulgarian population pyramid has essentially flipped since the beginning of the transition in the 1990s – back then the share of children (aged 15 and below) was 21% and the share of pensioners (65 and up) was 14%.

In this episode, we talk about democratic backsliding and why does it matter for the EU, the issue with Bulgaria and Romania, EU tools to address democratic backsliding among its members, and whether the EU is capable of using its tools more effectively to prevent it.

For millennia humans have been fighting for all this against the randomness of tyranny, the dominance of strengths, privilege, and discretion over common rules and freedoms, defended by just laws. They have always wanted to live in such a way that it is clear what belongs to them and what belongs to others, contracts are not broken, what is borrowed is later returned, and the ruler is punished if he steals, lies or mistreats.

In 2004 the Institute for Market Economics (IME) presented its first Alternative Budget. Each year since that we have suggested an annual budgetary frame with lower taxes, more effective spending, bold reforms, and lower state interference. At the beginning of 2023, Bulgaria will not have a state budget drafted by a regular government and voted on by a parliamentary majority.

Once again, it has become clear that Bulgaria shall not be joining the Schengen agreement for some time, mostly due to the distrust in the work of our institutions and their ability to effectively guard the outer border of the visa-free area. Apart from the deeper European integration and the further inclusion to the \"rich country club,\" the accession to the Schengen Area could provide a couple of specific benefits to the Bulgarian economy.

The period of instability in 2021 could easily be redefined as stretching up to 2022, given that the cabinet of Kiril Petkov lasted twice as short as that of Plamen Oresharski. The most recent elections show that the political crisis in Bulgaria is far from over.

It is good to think about the situation now, what could have changed during the brief life of the 47th National Assembly, and what is laid out by the current caretaker government in Bulgaria.

In this episode, we talk about the Western Balkans in the context of the EU enlargement, the current situation in respective potential candidates, opportunities and threats resulting from premature entry into the EU, and the prospects for further European integration.