BULGARIA IN THE EU

The position with Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union is currently something of a moving feast, but here’s the guts of it:

Bulgaria and Romania were originally in a larger group of former communist countries which started the process of joining the EU in the mid-90s.

Late in that process, Bulgaria and Romania were dropped from the group, as not being sufficiently prepared for membership. The remainder (Hungary, Poland etc) joined the EU in May 2004.

Bulgaria and Romania continued the accession process and, in October 2005, both countries signed formal accession agreements with the EU parliament and the 25 current member countries (the “EU-25”).

Under these agreements, Bulgaria and Romania will join the EU on 1 January 2007 unless:

• One or more of the EU-25 vote against their entry. These votes are going on country-by-country, in the national parliaments of each existing member. As of now, [17] out of the EU-25 have voted, and all have voted for Bulgaria and Romania to join. If in either case even one of the remainder votes “no”, the accession process will have to be started again with the affected country. Of the EU-25 countries yet to vote, only France is seen as being problematic in giving a “yes” vote.
  
        or
  
  
• The European Commission recommends, and the European Council agrees, that the “delay clause” in the agreements with either Bulgaria or Romania should be triggered. Under this clause, the entry date can be put back by up to one year (ie, to 1 January 2008) but no longer.

In May this year (2006), the European Commission issued what was supposed to be its pivotal report on Bulgaria’s readiness to join the EU. However the Commission kicked for touch on a specific joining date for Bulgaria (and Romania). Latest indications are that a final decision will be made in September or October, following a review of the respective countries’ ongoing endeavours to reach an acceptable state of readiness to become the EU’s 24-th and 25-th members.

Whatever happens, it is more or less certain that Bulgaria will join the European Union in the near future.

The Question of Buying Land

After Bulgaria joins the EU, the current restriction on foreigners buying land will continue for a period of years (five or seven) from the entry date. There will be some relaxation in the case of EU citizens wishing to purchase land for either their business in Bulgaria or for a primary residence, but the prohibition will otherwise continue for this “standstill” period.

During that time, it will – presumably – continue to be necessary for foreigners to form Bulgarian companies in order to purchase land.

Similar standstill clauses on foreigners buying land were included in the accession agreements of recent EU members, such as Hungary and Poland.


Go back to About Bulgaria