There are irreversible and positive changes in Bulgaria, which often remain hidden behind the boring reports of the European Union (EU), affirms the author of an extensive article published on Friday in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The author Michael Martens, the newspaper's correspondent for Eastern Europe, largely focuses on the fact that due to Bulgaria's EU membership, things in the country are better than its reputation.
"Was it wrong or, at the least, hasty to admit Bulgaria and Romania to the EU last year? Those, who base their assessment only on media information about the two countries, would not be able to overcome the impression that the EU needed to wait a little bit longer. The EC reports about both countries still include some alarming components," the author writes.
Martens, however, continues with his opinion that the outlook is not that grim and points out the unfairness of putting the two countries on the same level just because they joined the EU at the same time and are neighbors.
"In Bucharest and in Sofia, powerful groups connected to the communist dictatorship still play a destructive role. But, the regimes of the two countries have been as different as their poisonous fumes today," the article continues.
According to the author, Bulgaria suffers from the fact that "media, even the serious ones, report just a piece of the reality, and it is exactly this piece that remains embedded in the public's mind, a piece that does not have much to do with the full picture."
"It is unfair that the Bulgarian State today bears the reputation of having as its main pillars only incompetent politicians, corrupt administration and the mafia with their successfully accomplished murders for hire aimed at victims without any morals. Any new such murder that happens in downtown Sofia, contributes to the reaffirmation of the above clichГ©," Martens writes.
"It is true that Brussels and the member countries monitor Bulgaria with all possible strictness. And with such strong control, it often remains unnoticed that there is finally an initial progress, due to a policy targeting corruption and organized crime. Lately, the accusations over the abuse of EU funds promise as a minimum a turn for the better."
According to the author, the powerful change and modernization of Bulgaria have been possible only through the EU pouring billions in the country and becoming its biggest investor.
"The reports about this transformational process, however, rarely become the center of attention because they are too technical and boring to death. The EU reports about achievements are not suitable as media headlines. They talk about purification stations, changing the cadastre, land restitution, encouraging medium enterprises or implementing reliable statistics for the milking of the cows. Nothing exiting, indeed. But in the tens of thousands of such insignificant at first glance reforms and administration activities, there is a reflection of a reality, which is often omitted: the reality of a well organized country and several millions of impeccable citizens. This other Bulgaria remains almost invisible in the shadow of the headlines about corrupt judges and prosecutors or about the well organized underworld, partially bound with the chosen elite," Michael Martins concludes.
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