Bulgaria would be the poorest EU member state once it joined the union, Reuters news agency reported.

The GDP per person in the country reached only a third of the values in EU member countries, Reuters said.

According to the agency on September 26 the European Commission would recommend in its monitoring report January 1 2007 as Bulgaria and Romania's accession date. A one-year delay in the accession process was not likely, the report said.

Economists said that Bulgaria and Romania were going to face serious problems related to the re-structuring of their economies, once EU membership became fact.

Though wages in Bulgaria increased by 40 per cent since 2001 analysis showed that nearly half of the population lived with less than two euro a day. The purchasing ability of Bulgarians was lower than during the socialist rule of the country, Reuters reported.

Nearly 65 per cent of the Bulgarians supported the country's EU entry. Higher foreign investment was going to increase the number of work places and rise the standard of living, Bulgarians said.