[sas41]

I'm seeing some negative sentiment here, that I feel like, needs to be cleared up. For some context, I'm 29, I haven't always lived here, but have been here for almost 20 years. I work in the software industry.

1. Bulgaria has been a member state since January 1st 2007. Many here feel like us being accepted into Schengen area took longer it should despite the clear benefits of our black sea ports.

2. The adoption of the Euro was a long planned thing, delayed to ensure the country can have a smooth transition, while there's a Russo-phile movement in the country, there was never a majority negative sentiment, it's believed to be Russian disinformation that made it look like that.

3. Bulgaria is not purely a leech in the EU, while it's a beneficiary of financial aid from various EU initiatives, that's offset heavily by the constant source cheap, highly skilled labor and education. Some common examples are/were Nurses and Doctors often go west to fill gaps in other member state, notably in UK before Brexit. Construction laborers working in Germany. And an incredible amount of software engineering being outsourced to here from all over the world, especially richer members states.

4. Bulgaria has a huge Queer community, and while it's true, the current government leaned more conservative in the bad sense, we did also protest them out of government. While the country is dealing with and healing from decades of past Russian influence, the youth are organizing Queer Bazaars and Palestinian Solidarity Charity Punk concerts, both, I can attest were very nice.

My advice is to not form your opinions purely by what news sources that reach you, because in the modern world, everyone has an agenda. Before talking about a country you have no personal, long term experience with, try to do basic research using the "country + keywords" query and dig deep. The news that seem to reach people these days seem to constantly confirm their biases, and having seen the comparison to Hungary, a country under possible dictatorship, vs. Bulgaria, a country that just protested it's Parliament out, feels very odd.

[loky4i4]

big downside to adoption of euro is that retailers fictitiously increase prices, same happend in Croatia

[nephihaha]

And Ireland.