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Bulgaria: European Union Membership and Democratic (Un-)Accountability

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Bulgaria: European Union Membership and Democratic (Un-)Accountability Südosteuropa 57 (2009), H . 2/3, S . 191-216 DEMOCRACY AND MARKET ECONOMY ELITSA MARKOVA, BOYAN ZAHARIEV Bulgaria: European Union Membership and Democratic (Un-)Accountability Abstract. This article is based on the Bulgarian country report of the Bertelsmann Transfor- mation Index (BTI) 2010 . Generally, we follow the structure of the BTI country report . Thus, we focus on the domains of democracy, the functioning of the market economy and the management of the state . In some cases, however, we have merged together or omitted less important sections of these domains . Our main conclusion is that the pace at which Bulgaria is catching up with the EU standards in all domains – the functioning of democratic institu- tions, the market, social safety nets and overall governance – has slowed down in spite of the country’s accession to the EU in 01 January 2007 . While we present the evidence of this slow-down as seen through the lens of the standard BTI indicators, we have also tried to explain why this slow-down has occurred . Elitsa Markova is a PhD student in Political Studies at the University of Sofia and an analyst at the European Policies Initiative of the Open Society Institute – Sofia . Boyan Zahariev is director of the Governance and Public Policies Programme at the Open Society Institute – Sofia and member of the Networkof Independent Social Inclusion Experts . History and Characteristics of Transformation The process of transformation to democracy and market economy in Bulgaria has been slow and incoherent .1 As a consequence, structural economic reforms have been delayed . In comparison to other Central nda Eastern European coun- tries, Bulgaria had a relatively weak dissident movement before 1989 . Moreover, in 1989 former Communist political elites declared their intention to avoid social cataclysm by embarking upon a gradual transition to democratic government and a market economy via a smooth process of reform 2. 1 This text has been finalized prior to the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria of 5 July 2009 . Its substantial argument remains valid; yet, it does not refer in any detail to events pertaining to the post-election period . 2 R . J . Crampton, The Oxford History of Modern Europe: Bulgaria, Post-Communist Bul- garia, 1989-2005 . Oxford 2007, 389-394, 393f . 192 Elitsa Markova, Boyan Zahariev The popular disappointment with the “traditional parties” that dominated political life in the 1990s led to populism and the emergence of new political actors between 2001 and 2007 . In the 2001 elections, the political movement of the former monarch Simeon Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha (Saxkoburggotski), the National Movement Simeon II (Natsionalno dvizhenie Simeon II3, NMSII; now renamed the National Movement for Stability and Progress), won a landslide victory . Yet the NMSII government’s performance caused increasing disaffection among citizens and led to a decline in support for the NMSII and an increasing fragmentation of party structures and loyalties . Bulgaria’s most recent general elections, which took place on 25 June 2005, yielded the most complex outcome in the country’s post-communist history . Seven political forces overcame the 4 % election threshold . The Bulgarian Socialist Party (Balgarska sotsialisticheska partia, BSP) re-emerged as the strongest political party and formed a coalition government with NMSII and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (Dvizhenie za prava i svobodi, MRF), a party representing the interests of the ethnic Turkish and Muslim minorities in Bulgaria .4 During the first years of Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union, the course of democratic and economic reform was dictated by its continuing efforts to catch-up with European standards . Although there is clear evidence that this process slowed down after the goal of accession was achieved on 01 January 2007, the EU has continued to exert influence on Bulgaria . The EU’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), for example, has influenced the reform of the judiciary, as well as the fight against organized crime and corruption . Still, the extent to which CVM oversight has led to concrete results remains to be seen . Although a number of indicators point to strengthened economic stability, Bulgaria’s economic growth has not helped to improve the country’s governance . In 2007 and 2008, political corruption and the inability of the judiciary to deliver concrete results and thus meet citizens’ expectations deepened social frustration and public mistrust in the established democratic institutions . At the same time, this corruption damaged Bulgaria’s international image . The second part of the new government’s term has seen an unprecedented number of street protests and an emerging feeling that a new civil society exists in Bulgaria . This increase in political activism was spurred by the young generation, which has grown up alongside a twenty-year-long transition to democracy and market reform . The ruling coalition has survived seven motions of no confidence in the National Assembly and claimed this success as a sign of democratic stability in contrast to the political turbulence in other new EU member states . Yet this 3 For all transliterations we follow the rules of the Bulgarian Transliteration Act . 4 Venelin Ganev, History, Politics and the Constitution: Ethnic Conflict and Constitutional Adjudication in Postcommunist Bulgaria, Slavic Review 63 (2004), n . 1, 66-89, 66; Stefan Krause, Winds of Change Sweep Bulgaria, in: Peter Rutland (ed .), The Challenge of Integration . An- nual Survey of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union . New York 1998, 244-251, 244 . Bulgaria 193 claim remains highly controversial . Furthermore, the continuing erosion of the classical left-right cleavage has led to the emergence of new opposition formations outside the parliament . Democracy Stateness While contract killings have occurred in the period under review, the threat to state authority posed by organized crime has not increased compared to previous years . As noted in the June 2008 report of the EU Commission, prob- lems have been encountered at all levels in the fight against organized crime .5 The Bulgarian Constitution defines Bulgaria as a one-nation state that respects the differences existing among Bulgarian citizens with regard to their ethnicity, mother tongue, and religion . National authorities nsisti that Bulgaria’s model of interethnic relations, based on respect for civil society and pluralist democracy, is successful . Yet the definition of citizenship and the issue of dual citizenship have both been the subjects of heated political debate and bargaining among the partners in the ruling coalition 6. In June 2007, the Bulgarian Parliament rejected an amendment introduced by the nationalistic Ataka Party (Partia “Ataka”), which proposed that Bulgarian citizens should not to be able to be citizens of any other country at the same time .7 The draft of this amendment stipulated exceptions for Bulgarians in Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania as well as Bulgarians from Bessarabia (Moldova and parts of Ukraine) and the Crimea, but it did not grant a similar exception for Bulgaria’s ethnic Turks . Bulgaria’s Constitution prohibits religious discrimination but designates East- ern Orthodox Christianity as the “traditional” religion . However, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is a weak political actor and does not participate actively in public debates on policies such as bioethics or abortion . 5 Commission of the European Communities, On Progress in Bulgaria under the Co-ope- ration and Verification Mechanism, 23 June 2008, 20, available at <http://ec .europa .eu/dgs/ secretariat_general/cvm/docs/sec_2008_2350_en .pdf>, 04 May 2009 . 6 Facebook group “Voting without Frontiers”, “Voting without Frontiers” Does Not Accept the Banning of Dual Citizenship, Dnevnik, 08 July 2009, available at <http://www . dnevnik .bg/analizi/bulgarite_po_sveta/2009/07/08/752318_glasuvane_bez_granici_ne_ priema_premahvane_na_dvoinoto/>, 09 October 2009 . 7 Ataka, Draft Law on the Amendment of the Law on the Bulgarian Citizenship, available at <http://www .ataka .bg/index .php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2089&Itemid=57>, 03 May 2009 . 194 Elitsa Markova, Boyan Zahariev Political Participation Both the elections to the European Parliament and the local elections held on 20 May and 28 October 2007 respectively were characterized by low turnouts, vote buying, businesses seeking local political representation and the mobili- zation of voters along ethnic lines . Ethnically-driven voter mobilization even included the organized transportation of voters to the polling stations . Whereas the bussing of voters from Turkey has become customary in Bulgarian elections, election day “tourism” from Macedonia is a relatively new development . In 2007, however 2,800 voters traveled from Macedonia to Bulgaria in order to vote in the towns of Sandanski and Blagoevgrad .8 In 2007, the Parliament amended the electoral law to make the right to vote contingent upon permanent residence in Bulgaria . According to this amendment, voters were required to have a permanent residence in Bulgaria three months prior to the elections for the European Parliament and ten months prior to the local elections . These provisions sought to exclude from the vote Bulgarian expatriates in Turkey who had been forced to leave their home country before November 1989 . Prior to the implementation of this new legislation, many of these expatriates returned to Bulgaria in order to vote
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