Bulgaria and Romania lag behind other EU countries in their development, according to a recent study.

The two newest EU Member States remain commensurable to the other Balkan countries in terms of economic state, quality of life, level of democracy and state governance, according to the so-called Catch-up Index, prepared by experts of the Open Society Institute.

The study analyses Bulgaria's EU membership and the competitiveness of the country's economy.

The index compares Bulgaria to the other EU countries and EU hopefuls: Croatia, Iceland, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Turkey, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In terms of the four main criteria, mentioned above, Bulgaria ranks 28th after Croatia, but is before Romania.

A total of 47 criteria have been used for the comparison between the 35 European countries, which have been divided in six clusters by similarity of their level of development.

Bulgaria belongs to the fifth cluster together with Croatia, Latvia, Romania and Montenegro, which are followed by EU candidates: Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bulgaria registers a relatively high index of economic development, however, the quality of life is lower even than living standards in Serbia and Montenegro.

Comparing the Catch-up Index of the new EU members with the one of the oldest ones, the study shows that the Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovenia are the countries closest to the first 24 EU members.