The EU was not a goal, but a means that would give pretty good opportunities. It was up to us to what extent we would take advantage of these opportunities. Currently Bulgaria was standing in a completely different way in the world, chairman of The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria Lyubomir Ivanov told Focus News Agency in an interview on the celebration of Bulgaria's first year as an EU member state.

Ivanov said there had been a change after Bulgaria joined the EU. This change was a continuation of the changes Bulgaria went through and achieved in the years of preparation for its EU and NATO membership.

“Our opinion is treated as an opinion of a country talking, not only on its own behalf, but to a certain extent on the behalf of the most important centres of the political, economic and to a certain degree military power of the EU”, Ivanov told Focus News Agency.

Joining the EU was really the hardest task for us and it was a big success. What we achieved with Romania was very important, not only to our own self-confidence, but a good example was set for the rest of the Balkans as well. It was shown that even countries from this region could overcome all of the past's negativisms, Lyubomir Ivanov said.