After the formal decision to join NATO taken by the Bulgarian Government on 17 February 1997, Bulgaria has gone a long way forward, with reforms in the political, economic and military spheres. As a result of the improved interaction between the Parliament and the non-governmental sector came six reports which aimed to present an objective analysis of the facts providing an assessment of the readiness of Bulgaria to enter NATO. All the reports were produced, at the request of the Parliament, by a consortium of NGOs. These reports present an assessment of the readiness of Bulgaria in the political and economic spheres, in the sphere of regional cooperation and in the military sphere. The methodology used for assessment is the comparison with other countries (namely a selected control group comprising three candidate countries, Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania, as well as two member countries comparable to Bulgaria under certain indicators, Hungary and the Netherlands). These six reports were represented and published in the period from May 2002 to May 2004. The basic ideas of the reports were stated in separate memorandums directed to the institutions in Bulgaria and abroad with the aim to find answers and decisions connected with important issues for the community.