site.btaCC Co-Chair Vassilev Comments on President Radev’s Proposed Referendum

There is a serious disinformation campaign regarding the adoption of the euro in Bulgaria, co-chair of Continue the Change and former finance minister Assen Vassilev told journalists in Vratsa Monday. He commented on President Rumen Radev's proposal to hold a referendum on the euro.

According to Vassilev, the disinformation campaign scares people that their money will be taken from their deposits, and it spreads through social media with very serious organization and funding.

The former finance minister added that the EU accession treaty clearly states that Bulgaria should join the euro area when it has fulfilled the conditions and it has already fulfilled them and the convergence report on June 4 will clearly show this. The other important thing, according to Vassilev, is that the issue of adopting the euro has been on the table since 2016, when preparations for joining the euro area waiting room started and all governments have been working on this as a priority.

"This was a top priority of both the governments of Nikolay Denkov and Kiril Petkov, in which I participated as finance minister," Vassilev said. All legislation has changed. Businesses and the banking sector, all the insurance companies and all the small and medium-sized businesses poured an awful lot of money into preparing. Municipalities poured money to have accounting in both levs and euros, and now the certification is going on, he said.

In Vassilev's words, if Bulgaria were not in a currency board, the conversation would be completely different because then the central bank would have an independent policy. “Let those who are against the euro and want sovereignty - come out and say: We want to remove the currency board! and then let's see how the Bulgarian citizens will vote directly with their pocket - they will turn their levs into euros the moment the currency board is removed. This is the alternative - either we enter the euro area, or the currency board is removed. If we are talking about sovereignty - at the moment we do not have any because we do not even sit at the table, we only take decisions through the currency board," the former finance minister said.

Vassilev added that countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania are outside the eurozone because they do not meet the criteria to be accepted. Romania, for example, which currently has a 7% budget deficit, is in the European Commission's excessive deficit procedure for the fourth year.

Assen Vassilev said he expected the government to step up its campaign on the benefits of joining the eurozone and expressed confidence that the referendum proposal would not pass in a vote in the National Assembly.

He was in Vratsa for a meeting with the activists and supporters of Continue the Change.