Impacts of and experience with EU membership of the countries of Central, Eastern and South - Eastern Europe. Country study on Bulgaria

The current paper focuses on the issues Bulgaria faced and is still facing in the process of joining and being a full-fledged member of the European Union in the context of ongoing economic obstacles. By spotlighting on different macroeconomic aspects, the article examines changes and fluctuations of indicators and conducts research in terms of their origins. Thus, by using historic, statistical and comparative approach, the author tries to clarify the impacts and experience with EU membership of the Republic of Bulgaria. That analysis reveals general improvement of internal policy shaping along with a fiscal discipline and the positive influence over the FDI attractiveness of the country. Furthermore, the country is slowly catching up with the GDP per capita standards in the EU while being a net beneficiary of EU funds. Thus, the main conclusion of the current study is that there is an overall positive effect of Bulgaria’s EU membership.