The Eurozone is a partial goal in the larger one - for our country to develop well. Entry is important and we must benefit from the Eurozone, which means that our economy is competitive and our incomes are as close as possible to those in the Eurozone, but no one is talking about economy and productivity, but about the date on which we will adopt the Euro. This opinion was expressed to the Bulgarian National Radio by Ivaylo Kalfin, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Social Policy, former MEP.
"If we ask for the so-called extraordinary convergence report, we expect an exception to be made and one country to be removed, which was done for Croatia, so that inflation in Bulgaria, although higher, can go below the line. If we think we are ready, we can now request a similar report, of course with the risk that it will say that we are not ready. And then we will wait for the regular report in 2026," said Kalfin.
The government's goal should not be to enter the eurozone, but to improve the lives of Bulgarians, he emphasized.
In his words, the budget is a tool for implementing policies and an indicator of how stable the economy is: "The big announcements that 18 billion leva are missing from the budget and cannot be compensated for did not turn out to be exactly that. Obviously, the new government decided to transfer all current and future problems onto the legacy it received from the caretaker government, it did not do it very convincingly and now it has to somehow get out of this situation", he commented.
The effect of the boycott of retail chains, which happened in our country and in various countries in the Balkans, is not in reducing prices, but in "someone waking up and starting to do their job", Kalfin believes: "The state should not put a ceiling on prices, but to see if there is speculation".
According to him, it is very easy for such a protest to turn political.
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs commented on the statement of US Vice President J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference and described it as a very crude anti-European statement: "Which shows trends that the US intends to conduct its policy in a completely different way. They are replacing long-term policy, strategic goals with short-term deals. Whether it is for the Gaza Strip, which can become a resort, or for the underground resources of Ukraine, which, if given to America, it can help. These are all commercial deals with short-term goals. And Europe has to live with this. The US in this situation cannot be the strategic partner that it has been so far, and Europe must learn to live more independently. ... Without the EU, a decision on the end of the war cannot be made. A mechanism must be found that will guarantee that the war in Ukraine will not resume after it stops, and one of the options is its membership in NATO, which should be on the table, and Trump made several major concessions to Putin. Zelensky said that he does not see guarantees from the US and will not agree to negotiations without Europe. The new world order is an order of competition. Europe's strength is in the economy, in the large market, in the quality and conditions of life, in labor. That makes it attractive".
I don't think it's in the interest of the United States to enter into a total economic war with Europe, added Kalfin.