Bulgaria faces up to more work

Assetz News, 2006-05-15

     It is looking increasingly like Bulgaria's accession to the European Union will be delayed, raising a number of issues in relation to property investment.
     Purchasing an investment property in Bulgaria has been a popular strategy for a number of years and the country's progress in the vast majority of areas has been staggering since membership talks began in 2000.
     The property market in Sofia, for instance, has benefited from a series of redevelopments, while the ski resorts are proving incredibly popular with tourists from around the world.Developments in Bansko have been significant in the last couple of years and investors have are now able to look forward to excellent rental potential as well as impressive capital appreciation.
     A similar scenario has developed in the Black Sea regions, which tourists are beginning to see as an alternative to some of the more traditional options in Spain.
     Sunny Beach is one of the key growth areas on the Black Sea coast and it boasts an impressive beach that is eight kilometres in length. The future certainly looks bright for investors in Bulgaria and the groundwork has already been laid for future growth, but there are undoubtedly hurdles that need to be cleared. Bulgaria signed a joint accession treaty in April last year and accession was pencilled in for January 1st 2007.
     According to reports, however, the European Commission is likely to tell both Bulgaria and Romania that a number of standards need to be met before EU membership is an option.
     As reported by a special BBC report, the EU actually has the option to invoke a clause in the accession treaty that would allow for the postponement of EU entry until 2008. The key concern for Bulgaria in particular is corruption, although a series of measures are now in place to tackle this perennial problem. According to Reuters, the European Commission will actually postpone a final recommendation on Bulgaria's accession to September. The Commission will be discussing the progress made so far in a meeting tomorrow, but Reuters has reportedly heard that the postponement decision has already been made.
     Bulgaria's prime minister, Sergei Stanishev, has worked tirelessly in recent months in his attempts to overhaul Bulgaria's tired infrastructure and he has been praised on a number of occasions for the steps that have been taken.
     As quoted by the Sofia News Agency, he is now looking for a fair representation in the Monitoring Report that acknowledges some of these developments, although he is prepared to accept the criticisms levelled at some of the weaker areas.
     While EU accession will of course be beneficial to Bulgaria's property market, investors are not necessarily concerned that it may be delayed. All evidence points to solid and continued improvement in the country and many of the most pressing issues have already been addressed. If EU accession is indeed delayed to 2008, Bulgaria is still set to enjoy a record year for tourism, with good press about the ski resorts encouraging many to choose the country over the likes of France.
     Joaquin Almunia, European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, has been talking with Mr Stanishev about future economic growth and attracting further foreign investment and it seems clear that progress is continuing at an impressive rate.

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