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1 [1] (May 21, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/govepre0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service informing the legislative debate since 1914 Updated May 21, 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. 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. Prolonged political instability in Bulgaria may have implications for U.S. interests. Bulgaria is scheduled to hold a snap parliamentary election on June 9, 2024-its sixth parliamentary election since April 2021-alongside elections to the European Parliament. Dometic verview Under Bulgaria's parliamentary system, the prime minister leads the government, which exercises executive power. The directly elected president is the head of state and commander in chief. President Rumen Radev was reelected to a second term in 2021 with backing from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which is considered to have a more pro-Russian orientation. Dimitar Glavchev was appointed to lead a caretaker government in April 2024. Acting Prime Minister Glavchev's caretaker government was preceded by the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov, which comprised two blocs: Denkov's We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB), and Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria-Union of Democratic Forces (GERB-SDS). That government collapsed less than a year into its mandate when the post of prime minister was due to rotate from Denkov to a GERB designee. The Denkov government's priorities had included finalizing adoption of the euro as Bulgaria's currency, joining the EU's Schengen area of free movement, and countering Russian influence, particularly in Bulgaria's security and energy sectors. Bulgaria has experienced a prolonged period of 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 led successive governments for most of the preceding 12 years. GERB and BPS, the two largest parties in the 2010s, lost some support to parties that ran on anti-corruption platforms, such as DB and PP, as well as the populist There Is Such a People (ITN) and the pro-Russian Revival. The Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS), which is mostly backed by ethnic Turkish voters, has had stable support. Polarization and close election results have complicated stable governance. GERB and PP-DB were the top finishers in recent elections and share pro-Western platforms, yet relations between the two blocs are fraught. Some analysts assess that prolonged instability has politically strengthened President Radev, who appointed the caretaker governments that presided over Bulgaria for much of the past three years. Ahead of the June 9, 2024, election, voter intention polls suggest the next parliament also could be fragmented. GERB currently leads polls with around 26% support, followed by PP-DB (17%), DPS (15%), Revival (14%), BSP (9%), and smaller parties. Figure I. Bulgaria at a Glance Population: 6.4 miA on (2024 est.) Size; 108,489 sq km (about hie same as-,Vircgi.ni1a) * BLAI Ethnic Composition: Bulaan 785%, Turkish 7.8, Roma 4 1%, (2021 est.) Religion: Orthodcx and cthier Chr-istian 64.7%, Mul9.8%, othe 1, none 4.7 , un specified K 7% (2021 est) GDP/GDP per capita (current US$): $101 b 0illion Leadership: Presidentr RumnRadev. Actig Prime Mirister 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 asserts 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 nearly 4% in 2020 but grew by 7.7% in 2021. Growth slowed to 3.9% in 2022 and 1.9% in 2023, due in part to the economic impacts of Russia's war on Ukraine. Bulgaria is to receive C6.2 billion in EU COVID-19 recovery and resilience grants and loans.

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