The flags of Bulgaria and the EU were officially raised Monday at a festive ceremony in front of the Unknown Soldier monument in Sofia.

The ceremony was opened by Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov.

Bulgaria will be a stable, predictable and consistent EU member, Parvanov said.

We are joining the Union not with the ambition to be a consumer but with the willingness and readiness to really strengthen the EU with our stable macroeconomic indexes, dynamic development over the last few years and with our capacity to generate stability in a complicated region such as the Balkans, he added.

Bulgaria joins the EU with the ambition to assert its national interests, its identity ranging from culture to the energy security issues but at the same time with the awareness that it has to be a loyal EU member, that it can and will make the necessary sacrifices when common European interests are concerned, he said.

Today we are celebrating deservedly but we are fully aware that Bulgaria's EU-membership is not a one-time act but a process that will continue over the next months and years and that will require additional efforts in order for our country to meet the recommendations of the European institutions, efforts that will help us fit in the European economic and social model, efforts that will help enhance the living standard of Bulgarians, he said.

Today is a historical, great day for Bulgaria; a day which many generations of Bulgarians have lived for and fought for, the president said.

The event was also attended by PM Sergey Stanishev and the parliament's speaker Georgi Pirinski.

Special guests at the ceremony were EU Parliament President Josep Borrell, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, and Geoffrey Van Orden, rapporteur for Bulgaria in the European Parliament.

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