actively working to create the capacity to conduct an active monetary policy, something that the bnb has not done in the past quarter of a century. the necessary organisational structure will be operational by the end of june. we have created the necessary organisation to guide and control the entire preparation process. twice a month, the governing council examines four reports of the three deputy governors and the general secretary, respectively, on the progress achieved, potential problems and measures to overcome them. we are closely monitoring the commercial banks'preparations, which are also progressing according to plan, and reacting as necessary. 3 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches with this incomplete list, i want to emphasise that the bnb and the banking sector will be fully ready within the current year for the introduction of the euro in our country. is this enough in purely technical, logistical terms? the answer is no. there are a number of, above all, information and accounting systems under the control of the executive and the municipalities, which must be adapted to work in the conditions of the eurozone. these have been identified, but considerable work is still required to be fully completed. in addition, there are four sets of conditions in the powers of the executive that must be met before joining the eurozone, including in relation to the non - banking financial sector, insolvency, state - owned enterprises and anti - money laundering measures. i highly appreciate the caretaker government's intention to continue work on these topics. what do we need to do to successfully finalise the joining process? above all else, we need a clearly established, sustainable, pro - european political structure. this is something that has been missing since we joined the european exchange rate mechanism and the banking union. in the earlier stage of the political crisis, the executive showed a hesitant position regarding the eurozone. for example, it took nearly a year for the government to adopt the plan drawn up and approved by the coordination council for the introduction of the euro, with six ministers voting against and one abstaining, including ministers key to the process. in contrast to the earlier period, the last government stood on a clearly proeuropean platform, but as the development of events has shown, it turned out to be extremely unsustainable. i also leave without comment the fact that since our admission to the banking union and the exchange rate mechanism, we have had five different ministers of finance. in establishing a sustainable pro - european political structure, we are expected

dimitar radev : bulgaria in the eurozone, when? speech by mr dimitar radev, governor of the bulgarian national bank, at the opening of the conference " bulgaria in the eurozone, when? " ', sofia, 14 may 2024. * * * i will begin with the subject of this conference : bulgaria in the eurozone : when? the short answer to this question is : as soon as possible. why? because delaying our full integration into the core of the eu, such as the eurozone, has its price, and it is constantly increasing. more generally, this cost is expressed in continued marginalization in the political and economic periphery of europe with the inherent themes of this periphery such as poverty, corruption and external dependencies these topics are shifting bulgaria's real agenda, which should focus on its modernisation, outpacing economic growth and people's well - being. more specifically, the price of delay is expressed in harder conditions for business, trade and investment ; less favourable financing conditions ; higher non - productive costs for businesses and households. the scale of losses is measured not in millions, but in billions. therefore, the short answer to the question raised by this conference is : bulgaria, as soon as possible, must finalise the process of european integration by joining the eurozone. i will also try to give a bit more detailed answer. for this purpose i will touch on three issues : the background of the accession process ; the current situation ; and some necessary steps to successfully complete this process. bulgaria has a long history in the european integration process with many lessons learned, but unfortunately also with a few lessons not learned. due to time constraints, i will not go back that far, but only comment on the period after 2018. we should remember that bulgaria was to a very large extent the initiator and leader of the last stage of the enlargement of the eurozone, which, as a rule, has begun with the accession of the national currency to the european exchange rate mechanism. the formal beginning was made in june 2018 with a letter of intent signed by the minister of finance and the bnb governor and addressed to the eurogroup, the ec, the ecb and the then 19 eurozone member states. we proposed an approach that was different from the one applied up till then. the main difference was that, in addition to the inclusion of the bulgarian lev in the european 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches exchange