site.btaFinance Minister Confers with EU Leaders to Discuss Eurozone Accession

Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova met with Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde, and EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, the Bulgarian Finance Ministry reported here on Monday.

Petkova reaffirmed the Bulgarian Government's commitment to continue its efforts for Eurozone membership. All EU officials welcomed the formation of the new Bulgarian Government and its strong commitment to adopting the euro. The EU institutions agreed that Bulgaria is making the necessary progress toward euro adoption. This progress will allow Bulgaria to submit a formal request for the preparation of special convergence reports in the near future.

EU Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification, Valdis Dombrovskis, wrote on X the following:  “A good first discussion with Temenuzhka Petkova, Bulgarian Minister of Finance – looking forward to strong cooperation. The EU Commission will continue to support Bulgaria on its path to Euro Area accession”. 

Bulgarian authorities are confident in meeting the inflation criteria for Eurozone accession and plan to formally request the European Commission (EC) and the ECB to prepare special convergence reports, in line with the Bulgarian Parliament’s decision from 2024, the Finance Ministry said.

According to Eurostat data published on January 17, the reference value for the price stability criterion for December 2024 is calculated at 2.5%. Bulgaria’s inflation for the same period is 2.6%, which means that, as of December 2024, inflation is 0.1 percentage points above the reference value, the Ministry of Finance noted.