Bulgaria has asked for euro area accession convergence reports – PM Zhelyazkov
Bulgaria has formally asked the European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) to assess the country’s readiness to join the euro area, Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov said on February 25.
The proposal to do so was on the agenda of the special Cabinet meeting on February 24, which was held after European Union’s statistics body Eurostat released inflation data for the bloc earlier in the day.
“We have submitted the request for a special [convergence] report based on the understanding that we meet the convergence criteria,” Zhelyazkov told reporters.
Eurostat data appeared to indicate that Bulgaria met the price stability criterion for joining the euro zone, the last persisting obstacle in the way of adopting the common European currency.
This criterion stipulates that inflation in a prospective euro zone entrant has to be below a reference point, calculated as 1.5 percentage points above the unweighted average of inflation in the three countries with lowest inflation in the EU over the previous 12 months.
Eurostat data released on February 24 indicated that the three countries with the lowest 12-month average inflation in January were Finland (1.0 per cent), Lithuania (1.0 per cent) and Italy (1.1) per cent, which would put the reference point at 2.53 per cent.
For the purposes of convergence reports, this figure is rounded up to 2.6 per cent, which also the 12-month average inflation recorded by Bulgaria in January.
However, the EC and ECB can decide to exclude one or more of those three countries from the calculation of the reference point if they deem that their inflation figure is an outlier due to adverse price developments caused by exceptional factors.
The ECB did so in its latest biennial convergence report issued in June 2024, when it excluded Finland’s inflation figure from the calculation of the reference figure.
Zhelyazkov said that he expected the process to take months and that convergence reports by the EC and ECB would “likely” be released in early June.
In such a timeline, Bulgaria would have to maintain its compliance with the price stability and other criteria for joining the euro area through at least April.
Following the release of convergence reports, a series of approvals would be required – from members of the euro area, the ECOFIN council of EU’s finance ministers, European Parliament and the European Council – if Bulgaria is to join the euro area in January 2026, Zhelyazkov said.
(Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov photo: government.bg)
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content:
