8. Bulgaria and Romania: The Latecomers to the Eastern Enlargement

Bulgaria and Romania, the last two participants in EU’s large Eastern Enlargement, joined the Union more than two years after the big Central European wave. This chapter presents an assessment of some of the changes that took place in the period after accession and also seeks to analyse to what extent EU membership has helped them to converge to the EU frontier(s). This assessment shows that despite the similarities between Bulgaria and Romania, the two economies displayed important differences both in terms of the policies followed by the authorities and in the process of economic convergence, restructuring, macroeconomic adjustment and institutional change. Such results can be regarded as evidence supporting the view that EU membership per se does not guarantee convergence to the EU’s frontier(s), sustainable growth in prosperity and the degree to which the local population benefits from these outcomes. The latter remain a mandate and responsibility of the sovereign governments of EU member states and the policies that they pursue.