Bulgarians Doubt EU

Joining the EU is, after all, seen as the last nail in the coffin of a communist system that at least provided jobs.

In the town cafe, a bunch of youngsters said they are sceptical and not cheering over the EU accession as "prices will rise but salaries will not.

"During Zhivkov's time, my parents had jobs and we went to the seaside every summer," said 16-year-old Lyubomir Dyakov, who lives in Pravetz with his grandmother. "Now my mother is a waitress in Bahrain and my father is a driver in France. I will also leave Bulgaria as soon as I finish my tourism studies."

A European town?

Pravetz celebrated EU accession along with the coming of the New Year on its central square, which is named for Zhivkov, who fell from power along with communism in 1989 after ruling for 35 years.

At the town's entrance, an overhead banner framed by Bulgarian and European flags reads: "Pravetz, a European town."

"We are awaiting the EU accession with enthusiasm and hopes for a better life for us and the young," Pravetz Mayor Krasimir Zhivkov, who is also a distant relative of the dictator, said before the New Year.

"European funds will help develop the infrastructure," he added, praising his town's future as "a tourist destination and an educational center."

A US university correspondence program in business administration is already functioning in this small town west of Sofia.

Convicted for embezzlement

Formerly a small village, stuck at the foot of the Balkan mountains and at one point with no sewage facilities or electricity, Pravetz blossomed after Zhivkov's rise to power in 1954 and was officially declared a town in 1981.

The town's microprocessor plant once shipped its eight-megabyte "Pravetz" computers to the whole Soviet bloc. Now the plant is closed after a series of unsuccessful privatizations.

After being ousted in 1989, Zhivkov was arrested and brought to court for embezzlement of government funds.

But he was never prosecuted since Bulgaria's constitution rules that a former head of state can only be tried for treason.

The man who was Moscow's staunchest ally spent the last years of his life under house arrest in his daughter's suburban villa outside Sofia. He died in 1998.

Moving away

Now the dictator's modest home in Pravetz has become a museum and his statue stands in the town's public gardens.

Pravetz suffered when communist money stopped pouring in but it is now recovering thanks to investment by former communist faithful turned businessmen.

Still, a quarter of Pravetz' 5,000 residents have moved abroad, seeking jobs in Italy and Spain.

"Unemployment chased away my two sisters who are now babysitters in Italy," said one town resident. "I have seen what a European Union country looks like -- nothing to do with the Bulgarian reality."

"People there go grocery shopping for 200 euros ($262) and not for two leva (one euro) like here," said Albena Ivanova, a grocer whose monthly salary stands at 81 euros.

One of her clients complained she had to start a cleaning job after years as a communist administration secretary.

"There is no longer central heating in Pravetz as nobody can pay for that," she said. "I now once again use my coal stove."