EC appreciates Bulgaria's efforts on the road to the euro area / Article / LSM.LV

Bulgaria wants to become the 20th country in the euro zone. Sofia formally made such a commitment on Thursday, promising to introduce a number of reforms before. Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission, believes that it is a positive step:

"In this case, Bulgaria is of great interest. to boost the country's economic growth We support Bulgarian efforts to join the euro area, support the commitments made by Bulgaria under the exchange rate mechanism 2 and the banking union and are ready to to work with Bulgaria in the coming months to achieve this objective in practice. "

Bulgaria's efforts to join the single European currency are also supported by Latvia. This is confirmed by the Minister of Finance Dana Reizniece-Ozola:

"Yes, Latvia supports the enlargement of the euro area, and also the accession of Bulgaria, of course, to Bulgaria for Because often the path to the goal itself is more valuable than the goal, in this case Bulgaria is already committed to making significant improvements to become a member of the euro area. "[19659003] The Minister of Finance highlights Sofia's commitments to streamline the financial and insolvency processes of companies and promote the fight against corruption.

The head of the Eurogroup, the Portuguese Finance Minister, Marie Senten, said that the plans of the Bulgarian government are very grandiose and "impressed by the things that Bulgaria is committed to accomplish" . And we should rent them. "

A year later, it is planned to evaluate the progress of Sofia.And it is only then that we will decide whether the Bulgarian lev can be attracted to it. Euro,

which is one of the prerequisites for the country's accession to the eurozone.However, according to the economist Bruegel of the economist Brugel based in Brussels, Zolt Darvas, the Bulgarian currency has been closely linked to the euro for two decades.Darvas stresses that Bulgaria can not be compared, for example, with Greece:

"Greece has made a number major mistakes during the first ten years after its entry into the euro. But Bulgaria has been able to prove that politicians are responsible for two decades. In addition, the Bulgarian public debt is one of the weakest in Europe. Therefore, I do not think that the accession of Bulgaria can have a negative effect on the euro. On the contrary, the euro could be obtained only from this one. Of course, since Bulgaria is a small country, its impact on the overall situation will not be important. But any positive influence is welcome. "

Darwasch stresses that the accession of any country to the euro area is not only an economic decision but also a political one.He therefore hopes that the internal political considerations of the rest of the world will not prevent them from blocking Bulgaria's progress in this area.For example, Austrian Finance Minister Hertforth Leger said Thursday in Brussels that it would not be possible yet to predict whether Bulgaria would succeed in joining the EU. On the other hand, Reizniece-Ozola thinks that the enlargement of the euro area will benefit both Bulgaria and the single currency. European Union

"The debate on the desirability of a wider or stronger euro area is under way. I think we need both wider and stronger. Therefore,

this transitional period was also granted to Bulgaria, in order to demonstrate its ability to improve public administration, reduce the risks of corruption and many other things important for the country in order to Demonstrate that it is democratic, in accordance with the law But on the other hand, we must also remember that cohesion policy is intended to compensate for differences in living standards both within the EU and the EU. European Union than in the countries of the euro zone ", explains Reizniece-Ozola

. "Bulgarian poverty is not considered an obstacle by Dombrovskis:

" Currently, the average gross domestic product per capita in the European Union is comparable to that of Latvia and Lithuania when we have joined the exchange rate mechanism. .-2005 a year. But that does not prevent Bulgaria from settling in the eurozone. "

The future enlargement of the euro area is also one of the political objectives of the European Commission." Speaking of the situation in the European Union last year, the President of the Commission, Jean Claude Junker also spoke about this, but Bulgaria is currently the only country that wants to adopt the euro and meets most of the criteria.