The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) has ranked Bulgaria as a leader on diversification of gas dependence away from Russia for its decision to freeze the South Stream project in July 2014.

“Although this was after significant [European] Commission pressure, it was at high cost to Bulgaria which is almost completely energy dependent on Russia,” the international think-tank said in its 2015 European Foreign Policy Scorecard.

The European Foreign Policy Scorecard provides a systematic assessment of Europe’s foreign policy performance, analysing the performance of the 28 member states and the EU institutions on 65 policy areas arranged around six key themes: Russia; United States; Wider Europe; Middle East and North Africa; Asia and China; Multilateral issues.

The ECFR identifies member states as “leaders” when they either took initiative in a constructive way or acted in an exemplary way (for example by devoting disproportionate resources).

Member states are identified as “slackers” when they either impeded or blocked the development of policies that serve the European interest in order to pursue their own narrowly defined or short-term national interests or did not pull their weight (for example by failing to devote proportionate resources). 

Bulgaria isn’t ranked as a slacker in any of the other policy areas in the 2015 scorecard. Last year, the country was a slacker in three policy areas and wasn’t a leader in any area.

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