President Rumen Radev announced that Bulgaria is starting preparations for minting euro coins, a move viewed as symbolic as the not-yet Eurozone country is showing willingness to one day adopt the euro.
In a memorandum signed Tuesday, Bulgaria, Eurozone countries and the European Commission agreed that Bulgaria could begin preparations for coin minting, without guaranteeing that Bulgaria will enter the eurozone.
“The signing of the memorandum is a recognition of the efforts of several governments, including the efforts of the caretaker government to deal with the huge inflation. Efforts for macroeconomic stability are also recognised,” said Radev.
Technically, the memorandum allows the minting of certain quantities of trial coins with Bulgarian symbols on them, the finance ministry has said.
Announcing minting preparations has raised Bulgaria’s chances of being accepted into the eurozone by 30-40%, according to Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev.
Bulgaria aims to enter the Eurozone on 1 January 2024. In the spring of 2023, the country will ask the European Central Bank and the European Commission to prepare a convergent report to assess whether Bulgaria meets the conditions.
At the end of October, parliament adopted a decision that the government and the BNB should accelerate efforts to introduce the euro in Bulgaria from 1 January 2024.
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
