Impoverished Bulgaria looks to EU entry next year

SOFIA, Sep 21 (Reuters) Trifon Yarumov picks up cigarette butts off of the street and smokes them because he can't afford a pack of his own.

The well-dressed 52-year-old, who has struggled to find steady work since losing a factory job 12 years ago, is one of millions in the EU aspirant state living below the poverty line.

With per capita gross domestic product just a third of the EU average, Bulgaria will be the poorest country to join the bloc if it gains entry on January 1 as expected.

''Sometimes ... I make up to 250 levs a month. It's a lot of money to me ... But in the winter it's frightening.

sometimes I can't find a job for months,'' Yarumov said from a park bench in Sofia.

The EU's executive Commission is expected to recommend on September 26 that Bulgaria and neighbour Romania be allowed to join in 2007, forgoing a possible one-year delay for slow reforms.

Analysts say the poor Black Sea duo will face unprecedented problems upon membership as they come under further pressure for further economic restructuring and belt-tightening reforms.

Although wages have increased over 40 per cent in Bulgaria since 2001, a 2005 survey showed almost half of its 7.8 million people live on less than two euros a day. Purchasing power is lower than before the fall of communism in 1989.

Data from the statistics office puts average income for every man, woman and child at 204 levs a month.

For the most extreme poor, around half comes from state subsidies, which may dwindle as Sofia tries to overhaul its pension and education sectors.

''I expect Bulgaria to be lagging behind and to be dependent on the European Union for a long time. It will be a member always asking for further help and support,'' said Ides Nicaise, professor at Leuven University in Belgium.

HORSE CARTS Poverty is most extreme in the countryside, where horse carts are almost as common as cars and, according to a 2003 European quality of life survey, half of all homes lack flush toilets.

In central Sofia early in the morning Yarumov joins others rummaging through garbage cans looking for valuable cast-offs.

Like many of his generation, he speaks wearily of the decline in living standards since communism fell 15 years ago.

''I used to have good friends, but now, friends of mine who have jobs stay away from me because they think I might ask them to lend me money. Life is cruel,'' he said.

Polls show some 65 percent of Bulgarians support EU membership.

Most see incoming foreign investment and new jobs as the best way to raise living standards.

But, despite the promise of some 11 billion euros in development funds through 2013, analysts say it will take decades for Bulgaria to catch up with the rest of the EU.

''The forecasts are not very rosy. It's not going to be in our lifetimes,'' said Gergana Noutcheva from the Centre for European Studies.

Yarumov is hopeful, but he and others of his generation wonder how EU membership could rival the life they once had under communism.

''I'm not a communist, but in those times I was free and able to do what I wanted,'' he said.

''But now, I'm afraid to look people in their eyes.'' Reuters BDP DB0841