03.4.2007

BULGARIANS, ROMANIANS SLOWLY ENJOYING BENEFITS OF EU MEMBERSHIP

RUSE (AFP) -- Bulgarians and Romanians are starting to feel the benefits of EU membership three months after joining the bloc, but deplore their low standard of living, which is a far cry from that of average Europeans.
In the northern town of Ruse, the largest Bulgarian city on the Danube, as well as in the small Romanian town of Giurgiu directly across the river, the flag of the European Union flies on all public buildings, banks and even a theatre.
On the bridge linking the two cities -- the only bridge, built 55 years ago, along the over-300-kilometre (185-mile) stretch of the Danube separating Bulgaria and Romania -- crossing the border is now done "European-style," quickly and efficiently.
Gone are the once familiar queues of vehicles, together with the burdensome customs procedures, and a single checkpoint now swiftly checks identity cards.
Bulgarian drivers are no longer required to pay a hefty 50-euro (66-dollar) Romanian environmental tax -- a quarter of their average monthly salary -- for the privilege of crossing the border. The place has been tidied up and the prostitutes are gone.
"We used to spend at least four hours queueing at this border checkpoint, now it takes us only fifteen minutes to get through," truck drivers said happily.
"Romania and Bulgaria's entry into the EU is also a great relief for us," said Nejdet Mustafa, a Turkish truck driver.
"Now that Bulgarian and Romanian trucks pass without custom checks, our documents are processed much faster," he said. A Romanian policeman added: "Many more Romanians than Bulgarians cross over as prices are lower in Bulgaria."
Indeed, at a restaurant in downtown Ruse, one in every five customers is Romanian.
"I came for a beer," said Marius Maurescu, a tradesman from Bucarest, 60 kilometers (35 miles) away. In the EU as prices have become more competitive with the elimination of customs taxes," he said.
"We are making the most of restaurants and shops here -- something that was difficult before because of the queues and the border formalities," they said.
"But we also see that in Bulgaria, as in Romania, decades of communist rule have created a gap between the standard of living here and that of other Europeans," the wife, Mariana Dragu, told AFP.