>> Together with Romania, Bulgaria is new member of the European Union since January 1st 2007. Over the last years, Bulgaria has shown an economic development that was characterized by a relatively high rate of expansion and fiscal consolidation, which have led to the recognition as functioning free market economy through the EU.

Despite improvements due to a judiciary reform the weakness of the Bulgarian justice system still creates problems for the economic development.  Difficulties result from a lot of unclear and split up administrative procedures as well as the lacking experience of local authorities with EU-law.  Because of these circumstances the EU implemented transitioning regulations and accompanying measures and obliged Bulgaria to an ongoing reporting about the achieved results. 

Based on the number of inhabitants of 7,6 millions and a surface of 110.550 km² Bulgaria represents a medium sized market. The country is top ranked regarding the people's education level. More than 45% of all people speak one of the major European languages and more than 15% hold a university degree. Bulgaria won the mathematics Olympics 2003 in Tokyo as well as two gold medals at the "IT - Olympics" in the same year.

The operating cost in Bulgaria is generally considered as the lowest in Europe at present. Together with an attractive fiscal system (as per Jan. 1st 2007 the corporate income tax was lowered to10%) this fact makes Bulgaria one of the most interesting locations world-wide. Besides Austria, Germany and Italy, Russia, Greece and Turkey are the main trade partners of the country, whereby the connection of the Bulgarian Leva to the DM and subsequently to the Euro eliminated conversion discrepancies from the beginning when trading with the member countries of the European Union.