Bulgaria announces that it will not be able to meet the necessary criteria to adopt the euro in January 2024

17 Feb. () –

The Bulgarian Finance Minister, Rositsa Velkova, reported this Friday that the country will not be able to meet the inflation criteria necessary to adopt the euro in January 2024, so it will have to postpone its entry into the eurozone until 2025.

“In the context of discussions with the Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, and with Pascal Donahue, President of the Eurogroup, it was decided that Bulgaria will not present a report (for the process) at the end of February,” he explained. .

Velkova was referring to an evaluation report by the European Commission and the European Central Bank that is key to advancing in the process, which has also been paralyzed by the political situation in the country, which has been doomed to a fifth election in less than two years for the impossibility of forming a government.

Thus, he has alluded to the breach of the adhesion commitments, as well as certain discrepancies with inflation. Bulgaria does comply, however, with the budget deficit, which is currently 2.9 percent of GDP by 2022, explained the newspaper ‘Dnevnik’.

Velkova has thus urged the next Bulgarian Parliament to approve the necessary economic legislation to continue with the process and has specified that the country may, in any case, join the eurozone no later than January 1, 2025.

Bulgaria, which is in a deep political crisis and is headed for elections in April, already received a setback in December after it was refused entry as a new member of the Schengen border-free area due to a veto by Austria and the Netherlands.