European Exchange Rate Mechanism

The Bulgarian candidature for eurozone membership will be discussed at a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers. The point has entered the last minute on the agenda. It is envisaged that ministers will discuss Bulgaria's progress in relation to its desire to join the ERM II.

Bulgaria's push to join the euro zone is having a beneficial impact on the country, the International Monetary Fund said on Friday, reports Reuters. 

In order to join the ERM-2 mechanism, the two year "waiting room" for the euro zone this summer, Bulgaria has committed to improve financial sector supervision, anti-money laundering measures and management of state-owned companies.

Bulgaria will need to wait at least until mid-2022 to join the euro, the EU commissioner in charge of the common currency said on Friday, according to Reuters. 

The country meets the nominal criteria to adopt the euro, with low inflation, healthy public finances and its lev currency already pegged to the euro, but is also the EU's poorest state and has problems at some of its banks.

Today the Finance Ministers of the euro area Member States, the European Central Bank (ECB), the representatives of the Minister of Finance and of the Central Bank Governor of Denmark discussed the prospects of Bulgaria's participation in the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) in the presence of the Commission, the Bulgarian Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor, and issued the following sta

A report by the European Commission published on Wednesday said Bulgaria was not ready to adopt the common European currency.

Following assessments on the country's legal compatibility and its fulfilment of the convergence criteria, "the Commission considers that Bulgaria does not fulfil the conditions for the adoption of the euro," it said.

Bulgarian authorities are involved in talks to secure the country's accession into the ERM II mechanism, interim Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdzhikov said on Wednesday.

"I have the ambition that the caretaker cabinet should hand the application for ERM II. Bulgaria meets three of four criteria," Gerdzhikov said at his first briefing marking one month in office.

The Croatian National Bank, HNB, confirmed to BIRN on Tuesday that it is advocating that the country introduce the euro as its currency. The HNB is convinced that entering the Eurozone would eventually be "a cheaper and simpler solution" than continuing with the Croatian kuna and managing its exchange rate.

Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Dimitar Radev has said it is the right time for the country to access the ERM II Mechanism, the so-called "Eurozone waiting room".

The Bulgarian National Bank has said it will put forward a possible approach to the accession of the country into the single currency area.

Bulgaria's government is to consider a proposal for the creation of a special council tasked with preparing Bulgaria for eurozone accession at a regular meeting on July 1.

The project was drafted and submitted to the government by Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, according to a media statement of the government, as cited by econ.bg.