site.btaFinance Minister: Bulgaria Has Never Been More Ready for Eurozone Membership, President Tried to Sabotage National Interest

Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova expressed hope that Bulgaria will "take its rightful place in the euro area" on January 1, 2026. In an interview with bTV on Sunday, she said that the latest National Statistical Institute data show that Bulgaria has met the inflation criterion. "Let's wait for the Eurostat data, which will come out tomorrow," she added.

Asked whether the referendum proposed by the President on the euro could be a risk for the January 1, 2026 timeline for joining the euro area, Petkova commented that “definitely President Rumen Radev made an attempt to divert Bulgaria from achieving its strategic goal - euro area membership”.

In addition to this attempt, President Radev also tried to destabilise the Bulgarian Government with this proposal, she added, stressing that he failed. She argued that he has consolidated the Government and all democratic forces in the Bulgarian Parliament. “The other thing that the Bulgarian President wanted to do, in my opinion, is to bring a certain amount of hesitation in the European institutions regarding Bulgaria's readiness and determination to join the eurozone on January 1, 2026,” Petkova said.

The Finance Minister also said that in her talks in Brussels with EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, with Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe and with the European Central Bank she clearly stated the position of the Bulgarian Government and the Bulgarian National Bank that Bulgaria continues to insist that its main priority - euro area membership as of January 1, 2026 - become a reality as the country has never been closer to euro area membership than now, has never been more ready for it.

“This was a kind of sabotage by the President towards the country's national interests in the name of him realising his own political goals and personal priorities,” Petkova added.