Bulgarian government approves the request for convergence reports for the euro area

Bulgaria will request the European Commission and the European Central Bank to prepare extraordinary convergence reports on its eurozone membership candidacy. The Zhelyazkov cabinet adopted the decision during its meeting on Monday.

Earlier that day, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova announced that

Today is truly a very important day for Bulgaria."

According to her, Eurostat data on inflation in EU countries show that Bulgaria meets the last criterion for membership - that of price stability.

However, this is not exactly the case - formally Bulgaria failed to meet the price stability criterion in January as well, remaining just under 0.1 pp from the target. The situation is not much different than it was in December when the Zhelyazkov cabinet refused to request the convergence reports.

Now members of the leading party in the quadruple coalition - GERB - are talking about a "rounding up" of figures that the ECB and the EC would do in favor of Bulgaria so it would fit into the eurozone requirements.

The Council of Ministers is thus authorizing the Minister of Finance and proposing to the Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank to sign a letter containing a request for the preparation of extraordinary convergence reports, which will be sent to the President of the EC and the President of the ECB.

The decision was prepared in implementation of the Decision of the National Assembly of 26 July 2024 on accelerating and completing the process of practical preparations for the adoption of the euro in the Republic of Bulgaria and in accordance with Article 140, paragraph 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on the preparation of extraordinary convergence reports by the European Commission and the European Central Bank.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov