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handle is hein.crs/govenwj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service airmasinforming the Iegislative debate since 1914 Updated January 3, 2024 Bulgaria: An Overview After decades of single-party communist rule and a difficult transition period in the 1990s, Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union (EU) in 2007. Bulgaria's Black Sea location and NATO and EU memberships make it an important U.S. partner, particularly in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine starting in 2022. Members of Congress may monitor several issues in Bulgaria with implications for the U.S.-Bulgaria strategic partnership, including energy security, military modernization, building resilience to external authoritarian influence, and combating corruption and organized crime. Domestic Overview Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic. Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov leads a pro-Western government comprising Denkov's We Continue the Change (PP), Democratic Bulgaria (DB), and the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria-Union of Democratic Forces (GERB-SDS) coalition. In spring 2024, the post of prime minister is to rotate to GERB-SDS. President Rumen Radev was reelected to a second term in 2021 with support from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which some observers consider to have a more pro-Russian orientation. Bulgaria has experienced persistent political instability in recent years. A wave of anti-corruption protests in 2020 and 2021 weakened then-Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and his political party, GERB, which had ruled the country for most of the preceding 12 years. Bulgaria has held five parliamentary elections since April 2021. GERB and BPS, the two largest parties in the 2010s, lost some support to parties that ran on pro-reform platforms, such as DB and PP, as well as to the populist There Is Such a People (ITN) and the ultranationalist, pro-Russian Revival. The Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS), which is mostly backed by ethnic Turkish voters, has had stable support. Since 2021, a mix of caretaker and largely pro-Western governments has presided over Bulgaria; polarization and close election results complicated government formation following each parliamentary election. PP and DB expressed hesitance to govern with GERB and other former ruling parties, citing corruption concerns, but ultimately struggled to build coalitions without them. Kiril Petkov, a cofounder of PP, led a coalition government comprising PP, BSP, ITN, and DB from December 2021 to August 2022. This government oversaw Bulgaria's early response to Russia's war on Ukraine but grappled with internal divisions over various domestic and foreign policy issues. In Bulgaria's April 2023 parliamentary election, GERB- SDS won 26.5% of the vote, followed by a PP-DB coalition (24.6%), Revival (14.2%), DPS (13.8%), BSP (8.9%), and ITN (4.1%). Following difficult negotiations, PP-DB and GERB-SDS agreed to a rotational government (initially under Denkov) and a pro-EU program to finalize adoption of the euro as Bulgaria's currency, join Europe's Schengen area of free movement, and counter Russian influence in Bulgaria, particularly in the security sector. Bulgaria's political scene remains contentious. The governing parties share pro-Western orientations but are political rivals. The government's relations with the opposition and President Radev also are fraught, including over such issues as energy and military aid to Ukraine. Figure I. Bulgaria at a Glance Source: CRS figure using CIA World Factbook and IMF data. Corruption, Organized Crime, and the Rule of Law Corruption, organized crime, and rule-of-law challenges intensified during Bulgaria's transition in the 1990s. Citing concern that these issues had not been resolved when Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, Brussels continued to monitor reforms through the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The CVM closed in late 2023, when the EU assessed that Bulgaria met benchmarks in judicial reform and in combating corruption and organized crime. Some observers assess that corruption and organized crime remain significant barriers to good governance and economic growth. Bulgaria is consistently among the worst- scored EU member states in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. The U.S. State Department's 2023 Investment Climate Statement for Bulgaria assesses that high-level corruption, particularly in public procurement, remains a serious concern. The Biden Administration has imposed sanctions on several prominent Bulgarians for corruption (see below). Economy The World Bank classifies Bulgaria as an upper-middle- income country. Bulgaria's strategic location, relatively low business costs, and EU membership have attracted investment in such areas as information technology and the automotive industry. Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 3.9% in 2020 but grew by 7.6% in 2021. Growth slowed to 3.4% in 2022 and an estimated 1.7% in 2023, due in part to the economic impacts of Russia's war on Ukraine. Bulgaria is to receive 5.7 billion in EU

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