To figure out the future trajectory of Europe, Bulgaria is as good a place as any to start.
On the edge of the European Union bordering Turkey and the Black Sea, the Balkan nation is, as of 2014, one of the newest members of the union. It is also the poorest EU member, and one of the most rapidly shrinking countries in the world, population-wise. Around 9 million people used to live in Bulgaria in the 1980s, but today it’s only around 6.5 million. Aside from countries at war and those sinking into the ocean, Bulgaria witnessed the world’s greatest population decline between 2000 and 2025.
When I was there a decade ago, people joked to me that there were only two ways out of the perpetual crisis in Bulgaria. “Terminal One and Terminal Two,” they said.
Of the airport, that is.
That sense of despair might be changing, however. As of this January, Bulgaria is the latest country to join the Eurozone, which will provide a measure of economic stability as political administrations come and go, which they tend to do quite rapidly in Bulgaria. Not everyone is happy about giving up their colorful currency or national control over certain economic levers. And …read more
Source:: Institute for Policy Studies