Bulgaria joined the European Union on January 1, 2007 together with Romania, expanding the bloc to 27 member states. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Bulgaria is in the honeymoon stage of EU membership with a construction boom from the Black Sea to Sofia and a projected economic growth by over 6% this year, The Economist commented eight months after the country joined the bloc.
The article, entitled "EUphoria, for Now", adds that some are still waiting for their EU benefits and points as an example the Bulgarian farmers, who are still waiting for their first cheques from Brussels.
The Economist explains that the agriculture ministry is in the hands of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, whose leader Ahmed Dogan is "a wily politician from Bulgaria's Turkish minority, good at finding jobs for supporters, less so at getting EU money flowing".
The Economist repeats the widespread opinion of mainly foreign media journalists, who claim the jubilant release of the Bulgarian nurses from Libya reinforces the shaky coalition of Socialist Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and obscures revelations about President Georgi Parvanov's links with the communist-era security service.