Bulgaria joined the European Union (EU) as a full member state on 1 January 2007. This momentous event was the culmination of a long and demanding political project that has often been described as ‘Europeanization’. Although the first foundations of this project were laid fairly soon after the fall of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) regime in 1989, the pace was slow and it was only at the end of the 1990s that it really gained momentum. Over the intervening years the project had ebbed and flowed, but what kept the Bulgarian people committed was their strong belief that joining the EU would fill the wider political, economic and security vacuum which the dissolution of the communist bloc had produced. EU membership was popularly seen as a panacea that would allow Bulgaria to stabilize its newly born democratic system and overcome the economic problems of the post-communist transition. It was also seen as offering confirmation that the Bulgarians were really Europeans and that Bulgaria did belong to Europe.

This identity question partly arose from the very search for EU entry. Rejection would imply that the country lay outside the pale, and this possibility was repeatedly stressed by the political elite as they sought to justify the hardships the country had to bear in order to become part of the European mainstream. However, the question also had deeper historical roots, because being seen as Europeans is a political and cultural challenge that all the modern Balkan states have faced since their independence from the Ottoman Empire.