A significant proportion of Bulgarians do not hold their country's political establishment in high esteem. Instead, people look up to European governmental institutions, according to findings from a recent survey. Less than 12 per cent of respondents indicated that they had any faith at all in Bulgarian institutions. On the other hand, 36 per cent of the sample said that they would much rather trust European ones. The survey, conducted by the Institute of Open Society, was reported by Dnevnik daily.

The greatest percentage of Bulgarian voters who would rather place their trust in European institutions (54 per cent) comes from supporters of Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB). Second is the ultra-right wing nationalist party Ataka (Attack) which indicated a 46 per cent preference for foreign based institutions. Even supporters of the Turkish-led Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) stated that they had marginally more trust in European institutions than Bulgarian ones.

According to the accumulated data, more than 40 per cent of interviewees favoured allocating more power to European delegates as opposed to their own  representatives.

However, parallel research by the same institution, conducted in June 2008, revealed that nearly 90 per cent of respondents expected to receive nothing from European Union funds. They said they believed that only businessmen, politicians and criminals stand to benefit from EU  funds, not ordinary people.