Steps Towards Sustainable Rural Development. A Comparison Between Bulgaria and Romania after 17 Years in the EU
Steps Towards Sustainable Rural Development. A Comparison Between Bulgaria and Romania after 17 Years in the EU

Author(s): Maria-Claudia Diaconeasa
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Economy, National Economy, Business Economy / Management, Agriculture, Sociology, Economic policy, Evaluation research, Rural and urban sociology, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: development; rural development; sustainable development; neighbor countries; evolution, SDG
Summary/Abstract: The two European neighbor countries, Bulgaria and Romania, have a tangled history and share more than the Danube boarder and their location in the Balkan area. They have shared part of their history, culture, religion and traditions. Even more, they constantly compare to one another in terms of development. This closeness has led to European political and strategical decisions to be made commonly for both countries, such as the adhesion to the European Union (EU) in 2007. After a considerable period of being full members of the European Union, Bulgaria and Romania still face similar challenges and are frequently seen as a whole by other members of the EU when important decisions, like adhering to the Schengen area, are made. Nevertheless, Bulgaria and Ro-mania have been full members of the EU for 17 years and need to contribute to the same goals as every member of the EU, including sustainable rural development, currently implemented through the Sustainable Development Agenda. This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the two neighboring countries in this regard by using statistical data from Eurostat bearing in mind the Sustainable Development Goals (such as Area under organic farming or Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in rural areas) by using a multicriterial analysis. Some findings suggest that, while both countries have a small percentage of agricultural area converted to organic farming, Bulgaria currently shows a decrease in this area, while Romania is slowly increasing the organic cultivated area. Also, the rate of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion is decreasing for both countries, Bulgaria showing a more accelerated pace. Yet, these two countries are considerably behind the EU average for this social indicator. In Bulgaria being around 39%, in Romania around 45% and around 21% for the EU average. Therefore, these two countries have a difficult time in providing social improvements dedicated to the rural areas. Even more, this piece of research points out that little of the data regarding sustainability available on Eurostat is focused on the rural areas. Therefore, a clear differentiation between stages of development and possible strategies for the rural areas are impossible to make. This comes also as a limitation of this research. The paper points out the current state of sustainable development in the rural areas of the two countries and the weak spots regarding data gathering for enabling proper analysis and should be of interest to both scholars and public decision-makers for further analysis.

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