From The Economist

Eastern Approaches

Very, very slowly an old lady with a walking stick creeps along the street. Sitting in the shade four more tell me that they have just been to the funeral of the youngest of their friends. She loved to sing at parties, they say. Three of the four have children and most of them have left Montana, this north-western Bulgarian town. They have gone to work in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, 130kms to the south, or abroad. Life is "misery" says one of the ladies and, all talking at once, they compete to tell me just how awful it is.

Their pensions range from EUR 110 to EUR 140 a month. One has a daughter who works in Germany, looking after Russian speaking pensioners. "She sings to them." Another has a daughter who works for a family in Greece but her pay has just been cut. "But she still has a job." The daughter of another worked for 20 years in Moscow but is now back and unemployed. "Life is getting harder every day," says Margarita Rangelova, aged 82.

And for many in Montana, there is not much prospect of life getting better any time soon. As in much of Bulgaria the population is shrinking, ageing and changing. According to Bulgaria's censuses, in 1985 its population was 8.94m. By 1992 Bulgaria's population was 8.48m, in 2001 it was 7.92m and by last year it had shrunk again to 7.36m. Bulgarians have few children. As many as one million of them are working abroad.

Bulgaria's north-western region is one of the poorest in the European Union. In the last decade the town of Montana has lost 11% of its population but the wider municipality lost 18.7%. Across Bulgaria only populations of Sofia and coastal Varna have grown significantly.

According to Zlatko Zhivkov, the mayor of Montana, most of those who have gone abroad for work have left for Spain, Italy, Greece and Germany. Some do seasonal work so they come and go, but they are all an important source of money here. The crisis is hurting. Mr Zhivkov guesses that as many as one third of the region's migrants have come home because they have lost their jobs abroad.

Unemployment in Montana today is about 10%, which is close to the national average says Mr Zhivkov . In the few good years before the downturn in 2008, it dropped to 7-8%. He points out phlegmatically that, when he became mayor in 1999, unemployment was 24%. "During the 1990s things were much more difficult than now."

Montana is neat and tidy, if a little crumbly and run-down. Life is tough, but the last decade coupled with membership of the EU has brought investment and some jobs. Montana is home to several factories including three that work for Swedish giant IKEA, one that makes car batteries and one that makes bikes. Yet with average monthly wages in the range of EUR 250- EUR 300 it is hardly surprising that those who have the opportunity go abroad or opt for better paid work in Sofia.

It takes fifteen minutes to drive to the nearby village of Studeno Buche. A young teenage girl stands forlornly by the side of the road. She is not waiting for a bus. Another girl who seems to be Roma spots my car and turns to wiggle her bottom furiously wearing only a top and underpants.

In the village a few bored teenagers sit on the steps of the village hall. Nearby a large school building is locked and its grassy playing field overgrown. It opened in 1884 but closed in 2008. Since then the dwindling number of children have been bussed to school in Montana every day.  The high school lasted longer than the junior school, which closed its doors already in 2002.

According to Petar Petrov, the mayor, the village had 1,756 people in 1956. Thanks to Communist era industrialisation there were only 530 people left by 1989 as people had moved to work in Montana and other towns. Now the village has 456 souls and their average age is 55. "I suffer because there are only old people here," says Mr Petrov.

In Communist times as many as 60 people worked in the village pig farm. Now, says Mr Petrov, "it looks like Nagasaki and Hiroshima." Only the foundations are left. In the 1990s the pig farm was privatised. The man who bought it sold the equipment, closed it down and then sold the land. A few weeks ago a solar energy farm opened here. Lines of brand new solar panels gleam behind a high fence. But no one here is celebrating the arrival of this new enterprise which will help the country reach renewable energy targets mandated by the EU. As the mayor notes, the new farm only employs one local.

An old man with no teeth cycles past. His wife, aged 56, left for Germany last month to look for a job. Vanesa, a Roma girl aged 19, is not studying and has no job. Krassen, who is aged 17, is still at school but says, "I have no doubt I will leave Bulgaria because in other countries there is work and life is different from here." Vanesa chips in that "everyone wants to leave."

Studeno Buche is not only ageing it is changing. All of the 13 children who are taken every day to junior school in Montana are Roma. With no ethnic Bulgarians being born here the village will continue to shrink. Its make up will be different. In Montana too there is a similar trend, according to the mayor. Every year about 700 die and 700 are born but Roma, who now make up 12.7% of its people, account for 20% of births.

Roma account for 4.9% of the Bulgarian population. According to the 2011 census 23.2% of Roma between the ages of 7 and 15 don't go to school compared to 5.6% of ethnic Bulgarians.

A Bulgarian pun means "north-western region" can also mean, "northern falling down region". It is not all grim up north though. A huge new rail and road bridge across the Danube from Vidin, which is 50 kilometres north of here, to Calafat in Romania, could be completed at the end of the year. It will open up a major new European transport artery in what has long been a relatively isolated corner of the country and the region.

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