Bulgaria may enter the eurozone on January 1, 2026 or the beginning of 2027. The middle of the year has never happened and will never happen, because the banking system must be reformatted twice a year, and this is expensive. We may enter on January 1, 2026 or January 1, 2027, if we meet the criteria by then, it may even be later, former Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov, now a member of the Fiscal Council, warned in an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio.
"Currently, we, including the new members of the Fiscal Council, are fighting for entry to be on January 1, 2026, but in my opinion, this is unlikely to happen and accordingly they will postpone us for some time because of the deficit," Dyankov said in an interview with "12+3" from Washington.
He reported that last week, representatives of the ECB were in Sofia and there were talks.
"We explain that our economy and public finances, as well as the deficit, are affected by unfavorable developments – the war in Ukraine, if they make an exception, not only for 2025 for armament, then we will meet the criterion", shared Dyankov. But he is categorical that Bulgaria's entry into the eurozone is not a political decision, because the ECB is not a political body.
Dyankov is convinced that the convergence report in June, which the PP-DB is waiting for in order to submit a vote of no confidence in the government, can shake the ruling coalition, but not because of the PP-DB.
"The coalition is acting not because of the report, but because of the goal - "let us enter the eurozone" and I think this is a good goal. But, if this goal is to be pursued for another year, there must be a reformatting, the coalition must be more stable and last for another year. So without elections, there will be none by the end of the year, within this National Assembly there may be an even stronger cabinet. Until then, many things can happen.
I would return to the DB, because traditionally and historically they are closest to entering the eurozone, and first I would renew negotiations with them to enter the ruling coalition, for another year of this government. If it doesn't happen with the DB, I would look back at "DPS-New Beginning". When we have a stable government, the topic of the eurozone is dropped," the former finance minister shared.
He explained that the negotiations are going on this and next month to see inflation, whether we are still fulfilling it, because so far only one month - February, we have fulfilled the inflation criteria:
"And especially to see it on an accrued basis, where there were billions of unpaid debts from previous governments. This remains to be seen, whether the deficit will be below 3%."
Dyankov also commented on the topic of the tariffs introduced by Trump and did not hide his opinion that Europe and the EU are slow in their reactions.