This thesis analyzes the relationship between EU funding and heritage practice in member states, taking Bulgaria as a case study. Using ethnographic data gathered in Bulgaria, Berlin, and at the EU headquarters in Brussels, this study examines Bulgarian archaeologists’ participation, or lack thereof, in EU-funded heritage projects. Data produced by interviews with Bulgarian archaeologists and EU officials indicate that heritage practitioners in the EU and Bulgaria have divergent understandings of heritage, and this manifests in the way that heritage projects are conceived and executed by each entity. This case study demonstrates that EU heritage priorities and Bulgarian heritage practice diverge to such an extent that Bulgarian archaeologists prefer to rely on meager national funding, rather than engage with EU funding mechanisms. The project ultimately argues that while there is a mutual entanglement between EU and Bulgarian heritage structures, there is also considerable friction in how they interact with each other.