site.btaUPDATED Power-Sharing Party Wants Parliament to Debate National Plan for Euro Adoption

The power-sharing There Is Such a People (TISP) insists that a national plan for the adoption of the euro by Bulgaria should be debated in Parliament. In a declaration to that effect, read out at the start of the Thursday sitting of Parliament, MP Lyubomir Karimanski (TISP) said it is odd that the plan is due to be considered by the government later the same day and yet it has not been considered by the legislature.

In what is considered the first step to introducing the euro, Bulgaria joined the ERM II mechanism in July 2020 in the hope that it will be able to adopt the euro as of the start of 2024.

Karimanski said that while Bulgaria's entry in the euro zone depends on the government, it needs legislative support from Parliament.

He reminded the government coalition parties that their coalition agreement provides that a large-scale awareness campaign be held ahead of the adoption of the euro to tell people what the advantages and disadvantages of this move would be, and make sure that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, to use his words.

Karimanski also said that the silence of the nationalist Vazrazhdane party on the matter is surprising, considering that they have been staunch opponents of the adoption of the euro in Bulgaria.

At a news briefing in Parliament later in the morning, TISP floor leader Toshko Yordanov said that the Finance Minister "is trying to impose his will about something as important in this country as the plan for the introduction of the euro, which concerns all Bulgarians, their money and savings".

In another news briefing of their own group in Parliament, Vazrazhdane reiterated their position against the adoption of the euro as the legal tender in Bulgaria, their warning that it would cause hyperinflation and their demand that a referendum should decide the matter. They said that they would initiate a referendum and expect TISP to support them.

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Later in the day, Deputy PM and Economy and Industry Minister Kornelia Ninova told a briefing that the Council of Ministers had not discussed a national plan for the adoption of the euro at its meeting on Thursday. This item was on the draft agenda published by the Government Information Service on Wednesday, with Deputy PM and Finance Minister Assen Vassilev as the proposer.

"We have not discussed such an item, nor have we made a decision on the matter," said Ninova, without specifying why and how the item was dropped from the agenda.