site.btaEurogroup Supportive of Bulgaria's Ambition to Adopt Euro

The Eurogroup is supportive of Bulgaria's ambition on its path towards the introduction of the euro at the appropriate time, said Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who chairs the Eurogroup, quoted on the website of the Council of the European Union.

Donohoe’s remarks came after a meeting in Brussels on Monday of Eurogroup countries, in which Bulgarian Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova took part
 
The Bulgarian Finance Minister updated the group on Bulgaria's progress towards fulfilling the criteria to adopt the euro.

“We appreciate Bulgaria’s ongoing efforts and its commitment to economic stability and convergence with the euro area. We continue to monitor its progress towards the objective of joining the euro area. Once Bulgaria considers it is ready to submit a request for ad hoc convergence reports to the Commission and the ECB, it will be for the institutions to assess whether all the criteria to guarantee a successful integration into the euro area are fulfilled,” Donohoe said.

For his part, EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the date January 1 2026 for Bulgaria's accession to the euro area is realistic.
 
"I think that's a realistic goal. On the part of the Commission, we are ready to support it, but there is still work to be done", Dombrovskis told Bulgarian National Television in Brussels on Monday.

After her participation in the Eurogroup meeting, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said that by the end of February Bulgaria will make a formal request to the European Commission and the European Central Bank to prepare extraordinary convergence reports on the country's euro area membership.