Sofia, November 28 (BTA) - With a total score of 42, Bulgaria ranks fourth out of eight countries in Central and Eastern Europe for vulnerability to foreign influence, according to a pilot Vulnerability Index 2021 study conducted by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), coordinated by GLOBSEC (Slovakia), and supported by the US National Endowment for Democracy. The data were presented at a BTA-hosted news conference earlier this week by CSD Programme Director Ruslan Stefanov and CSD experts Martin Vladimirov and Goran Georgiev.

The Index evaluates the vulnerability to foreign influence in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. The CSD said the assessment covers five dimensions vulnerable to influence from authoritarian regimes, such as Russia and China: public attitudes, political landscape, public administration, information landscape, and civic and academic space. A scale from 0 to 100 is used where 100 stands for most vulnerable. The assessment is based on representative surveys on public attitudes, an online questionnaire and detailed interviews of at least 20 experts per country, a study of public Facebook pages and groups spreading disinformation, and data from indexes on corruption perception, press freedom, NGOs, and democracy in the January 1, 2016 - June 30, 2021 period.

Bulgaria is the most vulnerable to foreign influence in the dimension of public attitudes (score of 56) and information landscape (44), Georgiev said. The level of vulnerability is also high in the public administration dimension (38), he added. In the remaining two dimensions, Bulgaria's score is around the average for the eight countries under review.

Only 20 per cent of Bulgarians are satisfied with how democracy works in their country, which places Bulgaria at the bottom of the eight countries in this respect.

The study confirms the conclusion that Bulgaria is among the most vulnerable EU Member States to foreign influence and spread of disinformation narratives, the CSD said and argued that the Bulgarian government, the media and civil society organizations should take urgent coordinated measures to protect the country's democratic discourse from propaganda and disinformation.

/DS/