Part of the Eastern Bloc after World War II , today Bulgaria is a democratic, unitary, constitutional republic, a member of the European Union and NATO.Bulgaria joined NATO on MArch 29,2004 and signed the Treaty of Accession on 25 April 2005 .

It became a full member of the European Union on 1January 2007 . The country has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, and is a founding member of OSCE . As a Consultative Party to the Antarctic Treaty , Bulgaria takes part in the governing of the territories situated south of 60° south latitude.

.

Bulgaria is a country in Southeastern Europe. It borders five countries:- Romania to the north mostly along the Danube, Serbia and Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as Black Sea, which comprises its entire eastern border.

Situated in region once inhabited by the ancient Thracians and later by Greeks and Romans, Bulgaria is successor of a powerfull European medieval empire which at times covered most of the Balkans and spread its culture and literature among the Slavic peoples. After almost five centuries of Ottoman rule, Bulgaria was reestablished as a democratic, unitary, constitutional republic, a member of the European Union and NATO.

The Bulgarian unicameral parliament, the National Assembly or Narodno Sabranie (Народно събрание), consists of 240 deputies who are elected for four-year terms by popular vote. The votes are for party or coalition lists of candidates for each of the 28 administrative divisions. A party or coalition must garner a minimum of 4% of the vote in order to enter parliament. Parliament is responsible for enactment of laws, approval of the budget, scheduling of presidential elections, selection and dismissal of the Prime Minister and other ministers, declaration of war, deployment of troops outside of Bulgaria, and ratification of international treaties and agreements.

The last elections took place on June 2005. The next elections are planned for summer 2009.

The Bulgarian judicial system consists of regional, district and appeal courts, as well as a Supreme Court of Cassation. In addition, there is a Supreme Administrative Court and a system of military courts. The Presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Supreme Administrative Court and the Prosecutor General are elected by a qualified majority of two-thirds from all the members of the Supreme Judicial Council and are appointed by the President of the Republic. The Supreme Judicial Council is in charge of the self-administration and organisation of the Judiciary.

The Constitutional Court is in charge of reviewing the constitutionality of laws and statutes brought before it, as well as the compliance of these laws with international treaties that the Government has signed. Parliament elects the twelve members of the Constitutional Court by a two-thirds majority, the members serve a nine-year term.

The territory of the Republic of Bulgaria is divided into provinces and municipalities. In all Bulgaria has 28 provinces, each headed by a provincial governor appointed by the government. In addition, there are 263 municipalities.

Between 1987 and 1999, Bulgaria consisted of nine provinces (oblasti, singularoblast ); since 1999, it has consisted of twenty-eight. All are named after their capital city:-Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Dobrich, Gabrovo, Haskovo, Kardjali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana, Pazardjhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Shumen, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofia City, Sofia Province, Stara Zagora, Targovishte, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Vratsa,Yambol.

The provinces are subdivided into 287 municipalities .

Bulgaria occupies a unique and strategically important geographic location. Since ancient times, the country has been a major crossroad between Europe, Asia and Africa. Five of the ten Trans-European corridors run through its territory.

The total length of the roads is 102,016 km of which 93,855 km are paved and 416 km are motorways. Several motorways are planned, under construction or partially built: Trakiya motorway, Hemus motorway, Cherno More motorway, Struma motorway, Maritza motorway and Lyulin motorway. Other motorways are planned but their final track is yet to be decided. They include a link between the capital Sofia and Vidin, a link between the Struma and Trakiya motorways south of Rila Mountin , a link between Rousse and Veliko Tarnovo, and the Sofia ringroad . Many roads have been recently reconstructed.

The length of railways is 6,500 km of which more than 60% are electrified. There is a €360,000,000 project for the modernization and electrification of the Plovdiv - Kapitan Andreevo railway.

Air transportation is relatively well developed. There are four international airports at Sofia, Burgas, Varna and Plovdiv. Massive investment is planned for the first three. There are important domestic airports in Vidin, Pleven, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Rousse, Silistra, Targovishte, Stara Zagora, Kardzhali, Haskovo and Sliven. After the fall of communism in 1989, most of them are not used as the importance of domestic flights declined. There are many military airports and agricultural airfields. 128 of the 213 airports in Bulgaria are paved.

The ports of Varna and Burgas are by far the most important and have the largest turnover. Other than Burgas, Sopol, Nesebar and Pomorie are big fishing ports. The largest ports on the Danube River are Rousse and Lom which serves the capital.

There is well organised public transport in the cities and in many smaller towns. There are buses, trolleys (in about 20 cities) and trams (in Sofia). The Sofia Metro in the capital is to have three lines with total length of about 48 km and 52 stations, but only a section is currently completed.

Demografics of Bulgaria

According to the 2001 census, Bulgaria's population is mainly ethniethnic Bulgarian (83.9%), with two sizable minorities,Turks (9.4%) and Roma (4.7%). Of the remaining 2.0%, 0.9% are distributed among some 40 smaller minorities, the most numerous of which are the Russians, Armenians, Vlachs, Jews, Crimean Tatars and Karakachans. 1.1% did not declare their ethnicity.

Bulgarian is the mother tongue of 84.8% of the population; it is a member of the Slavic lanquaqes . Bulgarian is the only official language, but other languages such as Turkish and Romany , are spoken corresponding closely to ethnic breakdown.

Most Bulgarians (82.6%) are, at least nominally, members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the national Eastern Orthodox church. Other religious denominations include Islam (12.2%), various Protestant denominations (0.8%), Roman Catholicism (0.5%), with other denominations, atheists and undeclared numbering ca. 4.1%.

Bulgaria has had the slowest population growth of any country in the world since 1950, except Saint Kitts and Nevis (due to their high emigration rate). Growth has been negative since the early 1990s , due to the economic collapse and high emigration. In 1988 the population was 8,859,000 people, and in 2001 7,950,000. Now Bulgaria suffers a heavy demographic crisis.

Religion in Bulgaria

In 2001, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church had 6,552,000 members in Bulgaria (82.6% of the population). However, many people raised during the 45 years of communist rule are not religious, even though they may formally be members of the church.

Despite the dominant position of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Bulgarian cultural life, a number of Bulgarian citizens belong to other religious denominations, most notably Islam, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Islam came to Bulgaria at the end of the fourteenth century after the conquest of the country by the Ottommans. It gradually gained ground throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the introduction of Turkish colonists and the conversion of native Bulgarians. At the time of Liberation (1878) no less than 40% of the population was Muslim, but emigration was a key factor in reducing this percentage. In 2001, there were 967,000 Muslims in Bulgaria, accounting for 12.2% of the total population.

In the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, missionaries from Rome converted Bulgarian Paulicians in the districts of Plovdiv and Svishtov to Roman Catholicism. Today, their descendants form the bulk of Bulgarian Catholics whose number stands at 44,000 in 2001. Protestantism was introduced in Bulgaria by missionaries from the United States in 1857. Missionary work continued throughout the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. In 2001, there were some 42,000 Protestants in Bulgaria.

According to the most recent Eurostat "Eurobarometer" poll, in 2005,only 40% of Bulgarian citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 40% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force", 13% that "they do not believe there is a God, spirit, nor life force", and 6% did not answer.

Culture of Bulgaria

A country often described to lie at the crossroads linking the East and West , Bulgaria was the centre of Slavic Europe during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable literary and cultural influence over the Eastern Orthodox Slavic world by means of the Preslav and Ohrid Literary Schools. Bulgaria is also the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet , the second most widely used alphabet in the world, which was developed in these two schools in the tenth century. Bulgaria is well-known for its rich folklore, distinctive traditional music, rituals and tales, but the country's contribution to humanity also continued in the nineteenth and twentieth century, when individuals such as John Atanasoff - born in USA with Bulgarian origin, regarded as the Father of the Digital compyter , a number of noted opera singers and successful artists popularized the culture of Bulgaria abroad.

A number of ancient civilizations, most notably the Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Slavs and Bulgars , have left their mark on the culture, history and heritage of Bulgaria. The country has nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of these, two are Thracian tombs (one in Sveshtari and one in Kazanluk ), three are monuments of medieval Bulgarian culture (the Boyana Church , the Rila Monastery and the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo ), while the Pirin National Park and the Srebarna Nature Reserve represent the country's natural beauty, and the ancient city of Nesebur is a unique combination of European cultural interaction, as well as, historically, one of the most important centres of naval trade in the Black Sea. In addition, the Varna Necrorpolis , a 3200-3000 BC burial site, contains what are believed to be the oldest examples of worked gold in the world.

Tourism in Bulgaria

Bulgaria has enjoyed a substantial growth in income from international tourism over the past decade. Beach resorts are popular with tourists from Germany, Russia, Scandinavia and tne United Kingdom. The ski resorts are a favourite destination for British and Irish tourists.

Bulgaria has over 7,8 million visitors yearly and the ratio is improving.The tourism in Bulgaria is one of the major helping improving tools for Bulgaria's economy and growing GDP of 6%-6.5% every year.

Bulgaria has 3 national parks, 10 natural parks, 90 reserves, 429 reservation areas and 350 natural landmarks. The best known and most popular of these are listed below. In the European Union , Bulgaria is at second place (after Spain) by the number of the UNESCO Biosphere reserves, 16. The first nature reserve in the country was Silkosia in the Strandzha mountain, declared in 1931 ; followed by Parangalitsa , Rila in 1933.