Page 22 - bne_newspaper_November_02_2018

Opinion
November 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 22
COMMENT: Can Europe’s fastest-shrinking country turn itself around?
Nicholas Kaufmann in Brussels
A little over a decade ago, Bulgaria joined the European Union with hopes of a brighter future. Its people flooded the streets in celebration on the day of accession, dreaming of a modern, progressive country that could leave its communist past behind.
But the reality has been very different. Bulgaria has failed to wipe clean the stains of Soviet
rule; corruption and opacity have caused huge divisions, and a mafia-style elite has filled the post-Moscow void. The country remains a hugely frustrating place to do business and a dangerous one to be a political dissenter.
But now Bulgaria has reached a tipping point.
The murder of a journalist — though the crime appears to have been unrelated to her work,
and committed by a man under the influence
of alcohol and drugs — made headlines around the world, and shone a spotlight on the freedom of the press in Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the drastic flight of foreign capital threatens to trigger economic chaos, and populist demagogues are pushing for power. If Bulgaria can’t clean itself up, the dreams its people nurtured when they joined the EU could be shattered.
The bare economic figures already paint a troubling picture. Bulgaria is the EU’s poorest member-state: it has the lowest average salary in the EU (€575/month) the lowest minimum wage (€260/month), and the smallest average pension
Bulgarian prime minister Boyko Borisov
(€190/month). The result is that more than 40% of Bulgarians are now at risk of poverty and social exclusion, the very ills EU membership was supposed to cure.
It’s not that there’s no money in Bulgaria. It’s just that much of the cash is hoarded by a tiny band
of powerful businessmen linked to the criminal underworld. This motley cast of characters in- cludes the country’s richest man, Vasil ‘the Skull’ Bozhkov, an alleged mafia kingpin who has long been implicated in fraud, extortion, intimidation and money-laundering, as well as hotel magnate Vetko Arabadjiev, who recently became the subject of a European Arrest Warrant for tax evasion and money laundering after the police seized some €5mn in cash from his properties.
This post-communist elite has created a world in which bribes are frequently part of the tendering process for any big project, companies have been seized by criminal mobs without sanction, and men have been shot dead in the street over petty corporate disputes. What’s more, the new band of bosses refuse to share their ill-gotten wealth; Bulgaria’s ‘haves’ make more than eight times as much as the ‘have-nots’, nearly twice as big
a difference as the European average.
International observers such as Transparency International, which recently named Bulgaria the EU’s most corrupt country, have long condemned its shady practices. But instead of taking action,