Bulgaria Would Be Better Off Without EU – Parliament Member

Volen Siderov, the leader of Bulgaria's Attack party, says Bulgaria was better off before it joined the EU than after the country joined the bloc in 2007.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — As an EU member, Bulgaria was better off economically outside the European Union than after it joined the bloc back in 2007, the leader of Bulgaria's Attack party said Friday at a governmental meeting.

"The average Bulgarian has got nothing from EU membership. Life has not improved. Our living standards are lower than in the Russian Federation, which means it [EU entry] was a scam," Volen Siderov said.

Siderov described Russia's earlier decision to scrap the promised South Stream pipeline project that was to bring billions of cubic meters of Russian natural gas to South Europe, as painful. The pipeline was to run across the Black Sea and make a landfall in Bulgaria, which made Sofia its gateway and one of the main beneficiaries.

However, in August 2014 Bulgaria said it would put the construction on hold pending a permit from Brussels, which was concerned that the project violated the EU's Third Energy Package. Bulgarian politicians later accused the European Union of forcing Sofia into freezing the pipeline project.

"Now Bulgaria is a colony with almost no sovereignty. Bulgaria's ruling elite does everything the US embassy or the commissioner in Brussels wants it to," Siderov said. He accused Washington of pulling its strings on the South Stream project.

Bulgaria is highly dependent on Russian energy supplies, with about 90 percent of its natural gas coming from Russia.