Once mocked as the “16th Soviet Republic,” Bulgaria used to be desperately poor. But that changed. After joining the EU in 2007 and the Schengen Area 2025, as of today Bulgaria is also a member of the Eurozone. This has made & will make a difference, as figures clearly show.

What Bulgaria’s EU membership means economically becomes clear when compared with its neighbor Serbia, a country of roughly the same size. When Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, its GDP per capita was below Serbia’s. Today, it stands well above it.

Worldbank-Data: GDP per capita of Serbia in 2007: 6081 $. GDP per capita of Bulgaria in 2007: 5888 $. GDP per capita of Serbia in 2024: 13679 $. GDP per capita of Bulgaria in 2024: 17.596 $.

That’s hardly surprising. Bulgaria has access to the vast structural funds and multi‑billion‑euro special programs such as the

Recovery and Resilience Facility. Serbia does not. ec.europa.eu/commission/pre

$Today, the Commission has partially greenlighted Bulgaria\'s third payment request for €1.6 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU – the...$

ec.europa.eu/commission/pre…

Commission partially greenlights Bulgaria\'s payment request of €1.6 billion under NextGeneration...

As an EU member, Bulgaria also has access to special funds such as the €150 billion

SAFE (Security Action for Europe) program, which, for example, helps co‑finance a €1 billion investment by Rheinmetall. Serbia has no such access. reuters.com/business/aeros

Bulgaria and European defence giant Rheinmetall on Tuesday sealed a deal worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to build a plant that will produce gunpowder and 155-mm artillery shells.

reuters.com/business/aeros…

Bulgaria, Rheinmetall seal 1 billion euro deal to produce gunpowder and ammunition

Bulgaria also enjoys free access to a vast market of more than 450 million people. Serbia does not. No wonder there is no political majority in Bulgaria for leaving the EU, no matter how hard

propaganda tries to advocate for it. For more: faz.net/aktuell/politi

Bulgarien ist nun Teil der Eurozone. Doch politisch taumelt der wirtschaftlich schwächste Staat der EU. Bald könnte es die achte Parlamentswahl in fünf Jahren geben.

faz.net/aktuell/politi…

Bulgarien bekommt den Euro

Michael Martens

@Andric1961

Journalist. Tweets mostly in English or auf Deutsch, Иногда по-русски, понекад на српском.

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Michael Martens@Andric1961

Once mocked as the “16th Soviet Republic,” Bulgaria used to be desperately poor. But that changed. After joining the EU in 2007 and the Schengen Area 2025, as of today Bulgaria is also a member of the Eurozone. This has made & will make a difference, as figures clearly show.

Michael Martens

Michael Martens
@Andric1961