Bulgaria moves closer to Eurozone membership
The euro finance ministers have given the green light for Bulgaria to join the banking union and discussed the country's accession to the Exchange Rate Mechanism II, both preconditions for the introduction of the euro. Sofia submitted a corresponding request at the end of June, although a decision will be reached in a year at the earliest. For Bulgaria's press the Eurozone accession process can't go fast enough.
Please take a seat in the waiting room!
The sooner the Bulgarians take a place in the waiting room for joining the Eurozone the better, writes 24 Chasa:
“Lithuania spent more than ten years in the so-called waiting room, and with Latvia it was nine. Even the Baltic Tiger Estonia had to wait seven years. So the experiences of the Baltic states which were the last to join the Eurozone show that the wait is considerably longer than the prescribed minimum duration of two years. What does this mean for us? It's easy: if we reckon with a waiting period of a decade we should take our place in the queue as soon as possible so that the clock starts ticking down.”
Bulgaria is ready even now
Bulgaria could introduce the euro today as far as Sega is concerned:
“Bulgaria is the only EU country outside the monetary union which already fulfils all the conditions for introducing the euro stipulated in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. All that's lacking is participation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism ERM II. Unfortunately the many specialists working in the various EU institutions have remained silent. ... Otherwise they could point out that for the past 20 years Bulgaria has had a 'currency board' that has pegged the lev to the euro [and before that to the Deutsche Mark]. For that reason we don't need an ERM II, which only serves to stabilise exchange rate fluctuations in countries that want to introduce the euro.”