Bulgaria ERM-2 talks coming soon
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU finance ministers will begin discussing soon whether to allow Bulgaria into the ERM-2 exchange rate system, a step toward the country eventually adopting the euro, Bulgaria’s prime minister said yesterday. «It will be discussed by the finance ministers rather soon. I think it may be discussed in October,» Sergei Stanishev said after meeting EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. Bulgaria, which joined the European Union this year, wants to join the ERM-2, in which a country’s currency can trade around a fixed parity rate within a narrow margin, as soon as possible to allow it to adopt the euro by 2011-12. However, EU sources have said the European Central Bank and some EU governments are reluctant to let the bloc’s poorest nation join quickly, largely because of worries that its vast current account deficit will harm long-term growth prospects. Stanishev said he had promised Almunia that Bulgaria’s financial policies would be prudent and predictable.
