site.btaDeputy Finance Minister: Joining Euro Area Will Improve Quality of Work of Institutions in Bulgaria

One of the positive effects of Bulgaria's membership in the euro area will be to improve the quality of work of its institutions in Bulgaria. This was pointed out by Deputy Finance Minister Metodi Metodiev on Tuesday during a discussion on "Bulgarian tourism and Bulgaria's accession to the euro area", which is taking place Tuesday at the NV Tower, Sofia. The discussion is organized by the National Tourism Board and the event is under the patronage of Tourism Minister Miroslav Borshosh.

In Metodiev's words, the conversation on Bulgaria's eurozone membership should be shifted away from the debate on the benefits and costs of adopting the euro, as academic literature and empirical analyses clearly show that the benefits are much greater than the potential costs.

According to him, the debate on euro area membership should focus on three main aspects to achieve better communication with the public on the issue. The three aspects include concrete practical actions to deploy communication with the public, addressing people's fears about rising prices, and institutional convergence.

In Metodiev's words, besides the purely economic and financial benefits for Bulgaria in joining the euro area, there are also positive effects in terms of institutional convergence.

"The quality of the institutions should improve when Bulgaria joins the innermost circle of EU member states," Metodiev said. These effects are confirmed by studies by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and a recent study by the Council for Economic Analysis, he added.

In his words, joining the eurozone would give a much more positive boost in terms of the quality, integrity and overall framework of the institutions themselves.

In view of this expected positive effect, Metodiev pointed out that the whole process of joining the euro area, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and before that the ERM II (the European Exchange Rate Mechanism) was based on Bulgaria's reform agendas.

"Reform has become a bad word, but what is actually noteworthy and it is recognized by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, as well as by the credit rating agencies, by the OECD, is that actually since 2018 we have carried out an awful lot of positive reforms, both in the banking and non-banking sectors, which were commitments made by our country to get here," Metodiev further said.

According to him, the tourism sector can play an important role in the communication and information campaign aimed at the public, as according to estimates of the Ministry of Finance, some of the most positive effects of the adoption of the euro are expected to be systematized in the tourism sector.

The euro area communication strategy foresees a roll-out in the form of more than 100 events throughout Bulgaria, roadshows in the 28 main regional centres, events on the Black Sea coast and in mountain regions.