Romania and Bulgaria: a break from the ceaseless U.S. election news

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Bulgaria.............Romania

having made a number of visits to bulgaria over the past year, i've been regaled with stories of endemic corruption... addressing an audience of some 100 people last month, when i mentioned the subject, the response was audible groans, sighs, and eye-rolling... i can't speak to the situation in romania, but, as this speigel article spells out, it's much the same...

Corruption is rife in Romania and Bulgaria according to a ranking released by Transparency International on Monday. The report makes unwelcome reading for the two Balkan countries ahead of their 2007 EU accession.

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Romania -- which ranks 84th on the list -- has been plagued by corruption for years. Bribes are considered commonplace for basic services like health care, and the justice system is weak -- foreign investors complain that contracts and court decisions are not enforced.

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Scoring a 3.1 on a ten-point scale means that corruption in Romania is perceived to be rampant. Marschall [Mikos Marschall, Transparency International's regional director for Europe and Central Asia] said Romania's score is "devastating for a country that will join the EU next year."

i've heard much the same story about poland, already an eu member, and poland's ranking seems to bear that out...

A comparison with Poland is instructive. With a score of 3.7, Poland ranks worse than Bulgaria and not much better than Romania -- this a country that already receives billions in subsidies.

the fear among the bulgarians i spoke with is that joining the eu will not only NOT stop corruption, but that it will make them worse off, since prices will rise on a par with other eu countries, but wages and salaries will remain the same... so, who WILL do well...? gee, i wonder...

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