2024-02-21 17:51:46
The BNB is the institution that has a permanent and consistent position for the adoption of the euro, says the deputy governor of the central bank at a forum before representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament
We are charting the path to the Eurozone with minute-by-minute cooperation and coordination with the ECB. The BNB is the institution that has a permanent and consistent position in favor of adopting the euro. I am sure that we will soon become an integral part of the Eurozone.
These messages were sent to representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament by Petar Chobanov, Deputy Governor of the BNB. At the forum, organized by the Bulgarian MEP Emil Radev, there were also representatives of the academic community, non-governmental organizations and interested parties.
We are witnessing dynamic times in which dangers and risks are manifested in a number of spheres of economic and political life. Precisely because of this, today the message I want to emphasize is “comprehensive union”. For me, this “comprehensive union” includes several components – “political and cyber security”, “full digitization”, “green transition” and last but not least – deepening of “fiscal integration” and “fiscal union”, Chobanov also said.
Let’s start with political and cyber security. The war in Ukraine united the EU into a single political block and showed in practice how the many languages can be one voice on the international stage to enforce the European values of inviolability in all its aspects. But all this is just an impulse that should push us to real change. The threats to the security of the union are not only political, but also from the point of view of cyber security, which should be upgraded through the full digitization of business and administration in order to promote a sustainable, green economic growth.
Today I want to call on you to lay the foundations for talking about practical solutions, about coordinated strategy and togetherness, not about problems and fragmentation. Togetherness is the way the Eurozone will expand, aided by the benefits that the digital euro will provide. The practical solutions are to make it a cutting-edge tool of monetary policy, to strengthen monetary sovereignty and the global role of the euro, to create a financially stable and innovative payment environment. This common framework of sovereignty and stability will in turn serve as a basic building block for a fiscal union in which Bulgaria can share its experience of prudence, predictability and consistency in public finances. Experience that paves the way to the Eurozone.
The Fiscal Union should become the economic constitution of the EU, subject to rules, policies and optimal institutional practices aimed at establishing an adequate mix of monetary and fiscal policy, competition rules and financial market regulations that to support and build on the single market.