May 15 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria needs a sustainable pro-European political structure in order to adopt the euro in 2025 – a prerequisite that has been missing since the country joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) and the Banking Union in 2020, central bank governor Dimitar Radev said.
“As a result of the political crisis in recent years, we have lost both the initiative and the leadership in the process of joining the Eurozone. Nevertheless, our readiness in terms of accession conditions, legislative and technical framework remains high,” Radev said in a statement at the opening of a conference on Bulgaria’s euro adoption held in Sofia on Tuesday.
By establishing a sustainable pro-European political structure, Bulgaria is expected to restore high-level political contacts, resume fiscal consolidation efforts, swiftly enact euro adoption legislation and expedite work on the remaining conditions and technical preparation, Radev said. If this scenario materialises as soon as possible after the upcoming snap general election in June, it will bolster the country’s prospects of joining the Eurozone in 2025, he added.
Last month, Bulgaria’s president Rumen Radev called the early election, which will be the sixth vote for members of the National Assembly in three years, after the collapse of the power sharing deal between the two biggest factions in parliament – GERB-UDF and WCC-DB and the ensuing failure of political factions in parliament to put together a new government.
Bulgaria currently meets all nominal criteria for accession, except for inflation, which is set to remain above the required level at the date of the next convergence report due in June. In order for Bulgaria to adopt the euro, the government must fulfil conditions related to the non-banking financial sector, insolvency, state-owned enterprises and anti-money laundering measures, Radev noted.
The central bank and Bulgaria’s banking sector will be fully ready for euro adoption by the end of 2024, the central bank governor said. The central bank has completed preparations for minting the Bulgarian euro coins and is proceeding with the test minting of 8 million coins, while delivery of blanks for both the test series and regular production has begun.
Finally, the draft law on the introduction of the euro, which regulates the administrative process for the new currency, though not part of formal convergence requirements, is nearly ready for adoption by parliament, Radev said.
The European Central Bank and the European Commission issue convergence reports monitoring EU member states’ progress towards euro adoption at least once every two years or at the request of an EU member state which would like to join the euro area. The last report was published in June 2022.
