Bulgaria has one very important task

Political instability is a major factor in the delay on our path to the Eurozone, but it is not the only one. There are four factors that slow us down. High inflation ranks fourth, especially given the pro-inflationary policy of borrowing for social spending. Yet this will be overcome.

In third place is the fact that last year Bulgaria surprisingly entered the gray list of FATF for money laundering and financing of international terrorism. I have not yet heard any representative from the government or from a political party even mention this problem. In second place are the chronic budget problems. The biggest problem is the political will for the country to join the Eurozone. Under which government, which year and which month should this happen? Previous governments may say that there was such an intent. But that is not enough.

Bulgarian governments until 2005 were firmly "Pro-Eurozone", but the government in the period 2005-2009 never mentioned the Eurozone and did not want the country to join. After that, for a year or two, we wanted to become part of the Eurozone again, and we declared that this was our biggest foreign policy priority, and I was happy. Then these same politicians flipped and said that we would not enter the Eurozone. Then followed nearly 10 desert years when we could’ve entered. We suddenly remembered about right before the Covid pandemic and entered ERM II. Now the topic is back on the agenda, but this is still not enough.

I'm in favour, but as someone who has organized at least five conferences on the subject, I will say that in 2005 I strongly believed that we were closer to joining the Eurozone than we are now, in 2024. We are waiting for a new government to form, which should officially declare that it has no other priorities except the task of Bulgaria entering the Eurozone.