Dombrovskis: BGN-EUR rate to remain unchanged until Bulgaria joins the Eurozone

Bulgaria continues to work towards joining the Eurozone waiting room, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis told BNT on February 21 after meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. He described as speculations the fears that the BGN-Euro exchange rate would change when Bulgaria joins the waiting room. According to Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Bulgaria can join the Eurozone waiting room in July.

Answering a question by BNT about whether there would be a delay in Bulgaria’s joining the Eurozone waiting room, Valdis Dombrovskis said that in respect of Bulgaria's accession to the Eurozone, the Prime Minister was very clear that the country was still working to enter the waiting room.

We have discussed the implementation of commitments to ensure a successful decision to enter ERM II, Dombrovskis said. As regards the commitments monitored by the European Commission, they are being implemented. We also discussed the state of bank recapitalization - something that still needs to be done, he added. And of course we discussed the speculation of the recent days regarding the exchange rate. It is very unlikely that there would be any exchange rate other than the current one, in which the BGN is pegged to the Euro. There are no such precedents and there is no economic logic to ask for a different exchange rate. There is a high degree of certainty that the BGN-EUR exchange rate will be the same as the current one, Valdis Dombrovskis noted.

BNT question: Next week you will present the reports on the economies in the Member States. How is Bulgaria presented?

Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission: I do not want to speak in advance, but we generally see that Bulgaria is performing well in the fisc and has good budgetary discipline. In fact, it has the second lowest debt in the EU. Macroeconomic imbalances have been taken into account. The area we want to focus on is reducing income inequality.