The President of BIA participated in a conference on "Bulgaria's European Path – Accession to the Euro Area, benefits and challenges for business"
"Now it is a question of when Bulgaria will join, not whether it will enter the euro zone and whether it can accept the euro. I want this membership to take place. I believe that the benefits are so important for Bulgaria and for Europe that we must work towards the fulfillment of this task. Thus, your membership will be beneficial for the Bulgarians, for everyone in Europe and for the members of the Eurozone". This was stated by Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup, at the conference organized today by the Ministry of Finance on the topic: " Bulgaria's European Path – Accession to the Euro Area, benefits and challenges for business ".
He pointed out the practical benefits of Ireland's membership in the Eurozone, which would be similar for Bulgarians and for the Bulgarian economy - namely, that the Euro is a global currency and a currency reserve for the countries that accept it. In addition, euro countries have lower inflation and lower interest rates. According to Donahue, there are huge benefits and convenience for those people who want to travel to countries where the euro is the single currency, as well as for those who want to sell goods and services outside of Bulgaria and can do so in conditions of confidence in the value of that currency.
"If Bulgaria enters the eurozone, it means that your finance minister and the governor of the central bank will be in the room where the important decisions are made. When the Eurogroup meets to discuss issues that are important to the economies of the European Union, the European Central Bank will make decisions about its policy that will have a decisive impact on the economy in Bulgaria, but your governor of the central bank will be present at these discussions" - added the president of the Eurogroup.
"All expectations and models are that Bulgaria will cover the inflation criterion this year. The question is whether it will be in June, September, October or November. These are the different models that different institutions give. Inflation is the only remaining criterion that must be met for Bulgaria to join the Eurozone. We have covered the other criteria," said Finance Minister Asen Vasilev. He specified that if we have not covered the inflation criterion by June, when the convergent reports for all countries are released, Bulgaria can request, and the EC has committed to prepare an additional convergent report in a short period of time. This will happen the moment we cover the last criterion. The Minister of Finance assured the conference participants that our country is working very actively with all sectors – both banking and non-banking – on our accession to the Eurozone. We are currently in final discussions with the European Central Bank on the Law on the Introduction of the Euro, after which it will be published for public discussion and probably by May-June it will be adopted by the National Assembly.
Dimitar Radev, Governor of the BNB, stated that our country is currently at an important stage on its European path, because now Bulgaria is a member of the Banking Union, but not a member of the Eurozone. And he added that the BNB's analysis of our membership in ERM II so far is that the experience of joining the Banking Union has been positive. "The Eurozone is an opportunity, it is not a guarantee of achieving the results. The recipe is reforms and good policies, as well as the technical preparation for membership in the Eurozone, which is currently underway," said Radev.
The Chairman of the Committee on Budget and Finance in the National Assembly, Yordan Tsonev, recalled that our membership in the Eurozone is a process that started back in 1997, when the decision was made to introduce the Currency Board with the aim of financial stability of our country, as well as the fact that at that time it was accepted that the Bulgarian lev was anchored by the German mark, the euro was in the draft. "This process goes through a national consensus," Tsonev is emphatic.
More than 100 representatives of Bulgarian business, employer and trade union organizations and the diplomatic corps took part in the conference. Representatives of business organizations expressed their firm support for our country's accession to the Eurozone.
A video recording of the conference is available here.
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The president of BIA Dobri Mitrev also took part in the forum. To the participants in the discussion, he stated:
The discussion has shifted to another plane, but I want to say what we think about the membership of the Eurozone. We are extremely convinced of the advantages of Bulgaria's membership in the Eurozone, and not since this or last year, but since 2014 we have been actively working towards this goal. I will not talk about the advantages - any reasonable person appreciates them. This means stability and achieving the integrity of Bulgaria with Europe. There are only two steps left for us to truly feel like full members of the EU - Schengen and the Eurozone. I would be more worried if this wasn't ahead of us. We are in a monetary council, we have a fixed leva rate, but it can theoretically be changed. Eurozone membership will affect us all in a positive way, incl. to those who think there are negatives. There are certainly pros and cons, but the pros are more. In our pockets and credit cards, we practically have euros to date - we have a fixed exchange rate and we know very clearly what a euro is worth. Scenarios in some countries that joined before us played out with some negatives, but those countries were not in a currency board. We are in a currency board and thanks to him we survived 1997-98, thanks to our previous governor, because he was one of the fathers of the currency board in our country. It's time to look to the future. If we want to really feel worthy, if we want to develop, to have growth, the Eurozone is part of that path. For me, two are the biggest incentives for the Bulgarian economy and industry in the coming years - one is the Eurozone, the other is full Schengen membership.
