site.btaFinance Minister Vassilev to Tagesspiegel: We Expect Objective Assessment Whether Bulgaria Is Ready for the Euro

In an interview with the German edition "Tagesspiegel", Bulgarian Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said that he would like to see an objective assessment of whether or not Bulgaria meets the criteria for the introduction of the euro and based on that objective assessment to take an appropriate decision. He also expressed hope that the euro area will not to allow political subjectivism to obstruct its enlargement.

Vassilev confirms that Bulgaria's target date for the introduction of the euro remains January 1 of 2025, stressing that he expects no delays. "There were concerns about the national debt and budget deficit in 2020 and 2022, but we have managed to address these concerns. We have now adopted a budget that meets the Maastricht criteria. We ended 2023 with a deficit of 2.2%. With 22% debt to GDP, Bulgaria is also the country with the second lowest national debt in the European Union," the Finance Minister says.

Asked whether the Bulgarian public has fears about the euro changeover, Vassilev says that the Bulgarian currency was first pegged through a currency board to the German mark and then, since 1997, to the euro, and the real exchange rate of BGN to EUR has been fixed since 2007. “Most citizens now work in euros and have accounts in euros. If you want to buy a house, you pay for it in euros. So, the euro is nothing scary and nothing distant," Vassilev notes.

He specifies that in terms of anti-money laundering measures, Bulgaria plans to control all cargo traffic across the Bulgarian-Turkish border by the end of the year, because all overland trade between Europe and Turkiye, the Middle East and Central Asia passes through this border. "We have started to work with the other financial intelligence services in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States so that our officers are better trained, have access to better information and can therefore work more efficiently," the minister noted.