Bulgaria is not an economic burden for the Euro zone because it is a small country; we’ve weathered the crisis without going bankrupt and calling on IMF to rush to our rescue”, economic analyst Georgi Angelov said. He was talking to Radio Bulgaria on the implications of joining the Single European Currency in times of crisis.

The Bulgarian government has set its sights on replacing the Bulgarian currency with the euro in 2013. January 2010 Bulgaria will apply to be allowed into the so-called “waiting room”, formally known as the pre-accession ERM-2 mechanism.

“We’ve demonstrated that we can cope in hard times. If the next state budget is stable and balanced, we could convince our European partners that we shall pose no extra risk to Euro zone stability. On the contrary, we shall be part of the countries contributing to the stability. In other words, it is most important that the economic policy pursued by the government should be sufficiently strong and convincing. This could sell to the EU the idea that we shall be a positive factor in the Euro zone”, commented Georgi Angelov.

Bulgaria’s biggest problem has been not economic criteria but the fact that it has not been getting on well with the European institutions, which have been freezing EU payments and criticizing us over a failing to perform judiciary, corruption and organized crime.

“From this point of view the bigger challenge re entering the Euro zone is EU’s mistrust of Bulgaria’s institutions. When you freeze a country’s payments this indicates you have no trust in it. Hence, herein lies the big challenge facing the incumbent government of eradicating the relevant issues and convincing the European partners that we’re going to move in the right direction”, argued Stoyan Angelov.

Why is it that Bulgaria failed to take advantage of the years of economic growth in order to apply for the Single European Currency zone?

“ Bulgaria seemed to lack the courage initially to put the issue on the table. Then came EU criticisms on EU payments to Bulgaria and the judicial system. Bulgaria simply did not possess the positive image whereby to say” We are prepared for further integration”. Now, however, we’ve witnessed signs that the government is making headway and I’m a moderate optimist”, pointed out Stoyan Angelov.

How many countries of members of the Single Currency Union and which countries are still in the “waiting room”?

Presently the European Single Currency Union has a membership of 17; 3 Baltic states- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia- are in the “waiting room”. The rest of the countries- Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania- didn’t make the effort to even apply for the “waiting room”. Now, in the time of crisis, they realize this has been a gross error on their part, but at the end of the day you make your bed and you must lie on it. In our case we shall have to make up for the delay with being more pro-active”, said in conclusion Stoyan Angelov, an economic analyst.

English version: Margarita Dikanarova