site.btaVazrazhdane Party: MEPs Question Validity and Procedure of Bulgaria's Convergence Report

The Vazrazhdane party said on Tuesday that Bulgaria is not the only country questioning the validity and procedure surrounding the European Parliament's report on the European Commission's assessment of whether Bulgaria has met the convergence criteria. Doubts have also been expressed in the Netherlands.

Netherlands MEP Auke Zijlstra, shadow rapporteur from the Patriots for Europe Group/Party for Freedom (PVV), has also highlighted a conflict of interest and a probable breach of the Code of Conduct.

Bulgarian MEP Rada Laykova (Europe of the Sovereign Nations/Vazrazhdane), who is a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), commented on the issue to journalists.

Laykova said: "One cannot expect genuine oversight in such cases. The protection of the Maastricht criteria is the responsibility of the MEPs, since neither the governments nor the European Commission have any incentive to do so - quite the opposite. However, people will pay the price for the inaccurate application of the convergence rules - through currency devaluation, high budget interest rates, and forms of mutual bailouts among countries, including inflation caused by the intervention of the European Central Bank. A Bulgarian MEP from the ruling party leading a report on data from their own government is a classic conflict of interest that turns the report into a farce to the detriment of the citizens. Yet, the European Parliament saw no problem with this and even refused to postpone the vote until the issue is resolved."

The Patriots for Europe Group demands changes to the European Parliament's rules following Eva Maydell's actions regarding this report. They propose introducing a restriction so that a MEP should not be allowed to serve as rapporteur for the country from which they were elected, Vazrazhdane's statement said.

At a plenary session in Strasbourg on July 8, the European Parliament voted, 531-69 with 79 abstentions, to adopt a report confirming that Bulgaria fulfils the criteria for adopting the euro on January 1, 2026. 

Before that, the European Parliament defeated a motion by the Europe of Sovereign Nations Group (which includes Bulgaria's Vazrazhdane party) to adjourn the vote on this item of the agenda.

Bulgarian MEP Eva Maydell of the European People's Party/GERB was the rapporteur on Bulgaria's convergence report.