Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007, together with its northern neighbour, Romania. Both countries' roads to membership were far from easy. A plethora of political, socioeconomic and institutional problems prevented them from acceding to the Union in the first wave of eastern enlargement on 1 May 2004. Bulgaria's progress, in particular, was hampered by sluggish economic transformation in the 1990s as well as the weakness of state agencies in charge of implementing the EU entry criteria. Reforms in critical areas such as the judicial system and the fight against corruption, often produced limited results due to internal opposition, lack of political will or institutional inertia. The salience of these domestic constraints has induced analysts to question the extent to which the EU actually managed to mend the gap between the state and the citizenry marking Bulgarian transition. In addition, certain actors within the EU viewed sceptically the country's preparedness for membership, pointing at the shortcomings in the fight against organized crime and corruption.

At the same time, it is hard to deny that Bulgaria came a long way since the early 1990s. The EU accession perspective catalysed reforms, bringing about sustained economic growth and increasing the governance capacity of the state. While it will be inaccurate to give exclusive credit to Europe for steering the Bulgarian transition from communism, its influence was decisive in areas such as the liberalization of the economy, the modernization of state institutions and society, and, to a lesser extent, the consolidation of democracy.