The European Impact on Bulgarian Political Parties: Organizational Change and Intra- Party Relations
Dragomir Stoyanov, City College
There is a wide range of academic literature focusing on the EU’s impact on politics and policies of the EU member and candidate states. Some authors define this process as Europeanization. In this paper I focus on the organizational changes in Bulgarian political parties which result from the EU membership. It is expected that the political and economic impact of the EU on the development of Bulgarian politics and policy-making processes will be very strong. As a result, EU experts within government and political parties are expected to have access to significant political resources, knowledge and expertise. In addition, EU integration creates new opportunities for MEPs and other EU party experts, providing them with an ‘informational advantage’ (Hix & Goetz, 2001: 13) and larger areas for political action. This study is based on party documents and interviews with Bulgarian party officials.