National News

SOFIA, June 2, (APP/AFP) – The EU’s poorest member, Bulgaria,
said Friday it will start lobbying to join the European Exchange
Mechanism as a first step to its planned adoption of the euro.
Every eurozone candidate has to first enter the mechanism, known
as the ERM2 “waiting room”, for a period of two years before qualifying
for membership.
Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 and has already meet
the nominal membership criteria — low rates of inflation, budget deficit and debt — thanks to a tight fiscal policy and a currency board
arrangement that pegs its lev to the euro at a fixed rate.
While no target date has been set yet, Finance Minister Vladislav
Goranov said Bulgaria will intensify talks with the European Commission,
the European Central Bank and the other bloc members to seek their
political backing.
“We will strive to convince our partners that… joining ERM2
would be a good evaluation of the efforts that the Bulgarian society
is making and the
trust it has in the common European idea,” he told a forum on Friday in Sofia with European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.
Corruption remains rife in Bulgaria, where the average monthly
salary is just 500 euros ($560), around half the bloc average, and a fraction of what workers earn in western Europe.