Bulgaria Country Brief
Bilateral Relations
Australia's relations with Bulgaria are sound and constructive, though commercial and official contacts remain modest. This is reflected in the small volume of two way trade, the small size of the Bulgarian community in Australia, and Bulgaria's policy focus on integration with the European Union (EU) and other political, security and economic structures of Western Europe.
Some 12,000 people of Bulgarian origin are settled in Australia, mainly as a result of migration during the inter-war period. The Australian community in Bulgaria is very small, comprising mainly dual nationals and a very few expatriate business people.
Australia established diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in 1972 and maintains relations through the non-resident accreditation of the Ambassador in Athens and an Honorary Consul in Sofia. Bulgaria is represented in Australia by an Embassy in Canberra.
The main focus of Australian government business in Bulgaria is the provision of consular services to Australian nationals and support for Australian businesses seeking to develop market opportunities as the economy undergoes reforms from Bulgaria's accession to the EU in January 2007. Austrade services to Bulgaria are provided through the Austrade office based in Bucharest, Romania.
Other areas of shared interest with Australia include cooperation in the campaign against terrorism, WMD proliferation and the problem of illegal people movement, international trafficking in drugs and other forms of transnational crime.
Two way trade in 2008 was worth about A$76 million, comprising $30 million in exports and $46 million in imports. Australia’s trade in services with Bulgaria is negligible. Australia's export profile with Bulgaria is dominated by wool, which is sold as raw materials into the textiles industries. The main imports from Bulgaria are fertilisers and cheese and curd products.
High Level Visits
In October 2007, the Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister visited Australia for ad-hoc high level talks. In July 2004, an Australian parliamentary delegation visited Bulgaria for discussions covering a range of bilateral and multilateral issues, including prospects for furthering trade and investment. In April 2003, the Trade Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade of the Federal Parliament visited Sofia to undertake investigations into Australia's trade and investment relations with Central Europe.
Political Overview
Parliamentary System
Under its July 1991 constitution, Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a parliamentary executive. It has a single chamber, 240-member parliament, the National Assembly, which is elected every five years by universal suffrage. Members are elected through a system of proportional representation, with a four per cent threshold for party representation. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are drawn from the group able to command a majority in the Assembly.
The President, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is popularly elected once every five years for a maximum of two terms. The President enjoys largely ceremonial powers but does hold certain emergency powers and may return legislation to the National Assembly for further consideration, which can in turn be overruled. The most recent Bulgarian Presidential election took place in two rounds on 22 and 29 October 2006, where the incumbent since 2001, Georgi Parvanov, was returned for a second term with 76 per cent of votes cast (from the 41 per cent of eligible national voters who turned out).
In July 2009, Bulgarians elected a new government, ousting the Socialist-led coalition which had held power since 2005. The new coalition Government is led by Mr Boyko Borissov, leader of the centre-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) and former Mayor of Sofia. GERB took 39.71 per cent of the vote, entering parliament and government for the first time and securing 116 of the 240 seats. The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) won only 17.7 per cent of the vote, equating to 40 seats. The Turkish minority party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, came in third with 11.3 per cent of the vote and the ultra-nationalist Ataka party came fourth, with 9 per cent. Mr Borissov's preferred coalition partner, the Blue Coalition, won 7.7 per cent, followed by the Law Order and Justice Party (RTZ) with 4.13 per cent.
Foreign Policy
In recent years Bulgaria has achieved its key longstanding foreign policy objectives of membership of the EU and NATO, which have widespread public support.
Bulgaria, along with Romania, joined the European Union on 1 January 2007. At its summit in Copenhagen in December 2002, the EU stated that its objective was to welcome Bulgaria, along with Romania, as a member of the Union in 2007. On 13 December 2004 EU member states agreed that Bulgaria was ready to sign an EU accession treaty, which was carried out in April 2005. On 26 September 2006 the European Commission recommended that Bulgaria be admitted to the EU on 1 January 2007.
Bulgaria was invited to join NATO at the Prague Summit on 24 November 2002 and became a member of NATO on 2 April 2004. Bulgaria signed NATO's Partnership for Peace in February 1994 and has participated in joint exercises since 1995. It showed its commitment to NATO by providing bases during the Kosovo crisis in 1999 and is a contributor of troops to the International Security Assistance Force.
Bulgaria takes an active role in multilateral institutions and was a non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council in 2002-03. Bulgaria is engaged at an international level in peacekeeping and disarmament issues. Bulgaria committed one frigate and a medical unit for deployment with the EU force contingent to Lebanon in 2006. Bulgaria is a member of the Australia Group and several other like-minded groupings such as the Wassenaar Agreement, the Zangger Committee, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Missile Technology Control Regime. Bulgaria is a member of the Council of Europe and in the second half of 1994 became the first former communist state to hold the Presidency. Bulgaria joined the World Trade Organization in 1996.
Economic Overview
Bulgaria has a population of 7.6 million, GDP of US$52.0 billion and an estimated GDP per capita of US$6,857 (2008 estimates). Principal export destinations are Turkey, Italy, and Germany, while the main import sources are Russia, Germany, and Italy (see Bulgaria - Fact Sheet).
Bulgaria's economic situation had improved significantly over the past few years, following a period of severe economic downturn in 1996-97 when it experienced triple-digit inflation and contraction of GDP. In May 1997, the government moved rapidly to stabilise the economy with assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).Under a three-year agreement concluded with the IMF, a currency board (with the lev tied to the Euro) and structural reforms were adopted, as was a program of privatisation of state-owned enterprises. Bulgaria achieved macro-economic stability, a fairly low inflation rate and a low basic interest rate.
The economy is increasingly affected by the global economic crisis, however, with the Bulgarian Government forecasting a much lower growth rate of 1.5 per cent for 2009. Bulgaria had previously averaged growth rates of over 6 per cent each year since 2003. This reduction will have an effect on Bulgaria’s standard of living, which remains lower than in other Central European countries.
Updated September 2009