Bulgaria to Speed up the Process of Joining The Eurozone

Bulgaria will launch its bid to join the euro zone at the end of January 2010, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov told The Wall Street Journal.

The country, however, was increasingly fearful that the debt crisis erupting across the currency bloc could harm its application, Borissov said. Bulgaria will no longer need to tap the International Monetary Fund or international bond markets for emergency financing to plug its budget gap, he said. "We have everything in order and we're ready to start the road to the euro zone by the end of January 2010. It is now the first foreign policy priority of my government to enter the euro zone," Borissov said.

It has become clear that Bulgaria's application for participation in ERM-2 enjoys growing international support - Eurozone finance ministers' chairman Jean-Claude Juncker has expressed a positive opinion of Bulgaria's accession into the euro waiting room. Recently, Bulgaria's finance minister Simeon Djankov said Bulgaria had met all the necessary criteria, inflation rate included, for ERM-2 entry.