site.btaParliament Issues Mandate for Entry in Euro Area Only at Lev-Euro Rate of 1.95583

January 30 (BTA) - The National Assembly Thursday adopted
 with 140 votes in favour, 2 against and 66 abstentions a
resolution on determining the conditions for negotiating a
central lev-euro rate in accordance with paragraph 2.3 of the
Resolution of the European Council on the Establishment of an
Exchange-rate Mechanism in the Third Stage of Economic and
Monetary Union Amsterdam.
  
When negotiating a central lev-euro rate in accordance with
paragraph 2.3, the Finance Minister and the Bulgarian National
Bank Governor will continue to propose, uphold and vote in
favour of a position on a central rate of 1.95583 leva per 1
euro. Bulgaria will not participate in the Exchange Rate
Mechanism II (ERM II) if the central rate is different,
Parliament's resolution reads. 

Yordan Tsonev MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms,
co-sponsor of the draft resolution, said during the
parliamentary debate that the document sends a clear signal both
 to Bulgaria's European partners and to Bulgarian citizens that
Bulgaria wants to enter the euro area but not at all costs. In
his words, the second part of the resolution states that should
any of the euro area countries plus Denmark propose a different
lev-euro rate, Bulgaria will leave its path to the euro area.
 
Kristian Vigenin MP of BSP for Bulgaria opposed the hasty manner
 in which such an important decision was being taken and said 
his parliamentary group would abstain during the vote on the
resolution.

Toma Bikov MP of GERB accused BSP for Bulgaria of being about to
 destroy the consensus on Bulgaria's entry in the euro area.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told a news
briefing in
Parliament after a meeting with the National Assembly's
leadership, that political
consensus exists in this country on its accession to the euro
area. He
said that everybody also agrees that the present lev-euro peg
should
remain unchanged.

RY/DS



/ДЛ/