Finance Minister Asen Vasilev said after an informal meeting of economy and finance ministers in Ghent last week that Bulgaria has a real chance of joining the eurozone in 2025 as it can meet all the conditions for membership. Stated.
“We are following the euro plan,” Vassilev said Friday after a meeting with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Eurogroup President Pascal Donoghue, Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. Stated.
“All forecasts of both the European Commission and the ECB indicate that the last criterion we have not met, the inflation criterion, will be met in 2024, making accession possible in 2025,” Vassilev said. added. Ministry of Finance.
According to him, joining the eurozone requires a stable political environment and a regular government, which means that there will be ministerial changes between the ruling party formations “Continuing Change” Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) and GERB. This means that this must be done in March. PP-DB Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov will cede his post to current Interior Minister Mariya Gabriel (GERB).
“The entire legislative program has already been adopted and there are no further legislative obstacles. All that remains is the legislation on the introduction of the euro, which is currently being discussed with the European Commission and the European Central Bank.” Vasilev commented.
The finance minister added that Bulgaria's budget deficit last year was 2.2%, which was within acceptable limits.
“We are within the norm again this year. We need political stability to continue intensive work on monetary policy and the introduction of the euro,” he said. In response to a question, the finance minister said the ECB and EC expect average annual inflation to be around 3% this year.
A month ago, Denkov suggested that Bulgaria might not join the eurozone on January 1, 2025, but join on July 1 of the same year. That's because the ECB could give the country a few more months to get inflation under control.
(Klassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
