site.btaDeputy PM Petkova Confers with ESM Managing Director Gramegna

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova conferred with European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Managing Director Pierre Gramegna, Petkova's Ministry said in a press release on Friday.

The Deputy PM is in Luxembourg to attend the regular meeting of the EU  Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN). 

"Together we will pave the way to the eurozone," Gramegna said during the meeting.

Petkova presented the progress of the technical arrangements for the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria and the current state of the country's macroeconomic and financial indicators. Bulgaria expects to meet the price stability criterion until the end of the year, after which it will ask the European Commission and the European Central Bank for an extraordinary convergence report.

Gramegna discussed the separate steps in the process and committed to ensure the requisite support and expertise until the point of accession. "This is yet another cornerstone in our common efforts to consolidate Europe," said the head of the euro area's lender of last resort.

Inaugurated in October 2012, the Luxembourg-based ESM is a crisis resolution mechanism established by the euro area countries. It provides financial assistance to ESM Members experiencing or threatened by severe financing problems to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and of its member states. After the euro changeover, Bulgaria will also become an ESM shareholder. The ESM Board of Governors, chaired by the Eurogroup President, consists of the eurozone countries' finance ministers.