site.btaMRF Is "Firmly Opposed to Attempts of anti-European, pro-Russian Parties to Trifle with Idea of Euro Referendum"

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) on Wednesday disapproved of the re-submission of a proposal for a referendum on the euro changeover in Bulgaria by two other parliamentary parties. "MRF is firmly opposed to the attempts of anti-European and pro-Russian parties to trifle with the idea of a referendum on the euro," MRF floor leader Delyan Peevski said in a position statement released by the MRF press office.

The referendum will ask the question "Do you agree that the Bulgarian lev should be the only official currency in Bulgaria until 2043?" "It is an initiative that Parliament rejected a few months ago but a Constitutional Court decision subsequently did not say that the question was anti-constitutional," said Tsoncho Ganev MP, whose Vazrazhdane party, along with There Is Such a People, is behind the renewed motion.

Peevski warned that the proposal is a pitfall as it implies a referendum "for" or "against" Bulgaria's membership of the European Union. He was adamant that MRF will not allow it. He noted that Bulgaria has been implementing a consistent policy to join the eurozone.

The party's position further said: "As an EU member state, we assumed a commitment to adopt the single European currency when we signed the Treaty of Accession to the EU." Over the years, "MRF has been at the heart of this policy and will stay there until the goal is achieved".

"We have repeatedly explained the benefits of the euro changeover for individuals and businesses as well as the fact that the process will be smooth and trouble-free because a currency board arrangement has been in place in Bulgaria since 1997. Therefore, businesses and individuals will only stand to gain from the adoption of the single European currency," Peevski said.