This month, a large-scale information campaign in the media regarding the introduction of the euro in the Republic of Bulgaria will become a fact and will start. This was stated by the Minister of Finance Temenuzhka Petkova during her participation in Friday's parliamentary control in response to a question posed by Nikolay Denkov, reported by "Focus".
One of the leading priorities of our government is Bulgaria's membership in the eurozone. The current government has the will and will do everything necessary to bring this process to a successful conclusion, including by conducting a full-fledged campaign to explain the advantages and benefits for people and businesses of the introduction of the euro.
The constant change of leadership of the institutions and their visions for management and implementation of policies have also left their mark, which is evident from the delay in a full-fledged campaign regarding the euro, Petkova also said.
She pointed out that the information campaign was detailed during the last government of Boyko Borisov, when Kiril Ananiev was the minister, and during his term the working version of the communication strategy for information and publicity of Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone, as well as the draft of the National Plan for the Introduction of the Euro, were created.
"The facts show that the preparation began on time, but the two caretaker governments after that, as well as the regular government subsequently, did not work at the pace necessary to prepare and launch the information campaign," she said.
"The first communication strategy was adopted only in November 2022 by a decision of the Coordination Council for the Preparation of the Republic of Bulgaria for Membership in the Eurozone. It turns out that there is no resource set aside in the budget of the Ministry of Finance for the implementation of the campaign, unlike the scheduled procedure for the period 2021 - 2024, when the then leadership of the Ministry of Finance planned financial resources with a three-year horizon. Unfortunately, this money has been removed from the plan-account", she explained.
From the words of the Minister of Finance, it became clear that by a decree of the Council of Ministers of December 2022, funds in the amount of 10 million leva were approved under the budget of the Ministry of Finance for the communication strategy.
"At the end of 2022, the work on the contract for the development and implementation of a website for the introduction of the euro was assigned, and in March 2023, it was accepted," she said.
Then, a contract was signed for the production of six videos related to informing the public about the benefits of adopting the euro currency.However, with the accession of Asen Vassilev as Minister of Finance, the contract was terminated, and by that time three videos had been produced. Subsequently, in March 2024, contracts were signed with some of the television media to broadcast the videos. During the same period, the website for the introduction of the euro was also launched.