Bulgaria is making every effort to enter the Eurozone no later than 1 January 2025, the Finance Ministry said in a statement published on Thursday, responding to media speculations that the euro could again be postponed after that date.
Following Eurozone membership discussions between Finance Minister Rositsa Velkova, Eurogroup President Pascal Donahue and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis during the ECOFIN meeting last week, some Bulgarian media began speculating that a new postponement past the January 2025 deadline was being discussed.
“Membership in the Eurozone is a priority for our country. The active work of the state continues to prepare for the adoption of the single European currency, both in the technical and in the legislative part,” the Bulgarian government wrote in a position where it condemned spreading fake news and contradictory information in the media.
Bulgaria has faced hurdles on its path to joining the Eurozone, initially planned for 1 January 2024.
These include high inflation, lack of regular government over the past two years, and inability to form the needed majority to adopt the bills that must be adopted while it is in the waiting room of the Eurozone, the so-called ERM II exchange rate mechanism.
These include bills for adopting a personal bankruptcy procedure, changes to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, and the Insurance Code related to the Green Card case.
The current parliament could also be quickly dissolved if no agreement is reached to form a government, and the laws might again not pass.
Another hurdle in the way of Bulgaria joining the Eurozone is the decision of the caretaker government to submit a draft budget for the year that includes a huge deficit of 6.4% without measures to decrease it.
The government is reluctant to present a plan to reduce the deficit, arguing that the tough political decisions must be made by parliament. The government proposes to make up the shortfall by introducing a one-off tax on corporate excess profits and returning all reduced VAT rates to 20%.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s pro-Russian populist party Vazrazhdane collected nearly 600,000 signatures to organise a referendum to postpone Eurozone membership for another 20 years – enough to hold a referendum that could even have Bulgarians voting to keep the lev.
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
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