Dimitar Radev: No stone has been left unturned on the topic of euro adoption in Bulgaria Statement by Mr Dimitar Radev, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, during a hearing at the 48th National Assembly, Sofia, 27 October 2022. *** Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen Members of Parliament, Let me begin with this. The true debate today is for or against the euro – the euro as a symbol of the European project and our commitment to this project. In the item on the agenda where we are considering this issue, this topic is placed below 'expert questions'. In the next item, this topic comes up directly. However, in both cases the topic is the same. Let me say it squarely, the question about the euro area is first and foremost a political one, not an expert one, and the answer to this question must be given by the National Assembly. Actually, in my opinion, the question is whether Bulgaria will stay indefinitely in the future anchored in Europe's deep periphery, with the poverty, corruption, institutional impotence and external dependencies inherent to this periphery, or a joint effort will be made to change all this by speeding up the already greatly delayed process of joining the euro area. A few words about the expert analyses supposed to inform this process. This is the third discussion in Parliament on the topic of analysis of the implications of the euro area accession, in which I have taken part over the last six months.
From that date until today another 200 decisions or so were made in the context of Bulgaria's participation in the EU's Banking Union, backed up by serious analytical work. Therefore, as far as the BNB is concerned, no stone has been left unturned on this topic. What I would like to stress is that there are enough representative, thorough and up-todate analyses on the implications of Bulgaria's accession to the euro area. The addition of more analyses at this moment would only further delay the process and would hardly enhance the quality. What we need now is not new analyses on this subject, but concrete actions. How prepared is the BNB to join the euro area? The BNB is in a unique situation. It is the first, and until now the only, Bulgarian institution which, since 1 October 2020, has been a full member of a key institution of the euro area, as is the EU's Banking Union with its two operating mechanisms: the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism. Therefore, the BNB is the institution which, not based on theoretical analyses but from first-hand experience, can tell the difference between being outside and being inside the euro area, i.e. we are speaking not about anticipated but about real implications. Most recently, it's been two years since Bulgaria became a full member, and our assessments are unequivocally positive. Now we have information and a database which would have been inaccessible to us before our membership, even if we had invested huge resources.