Bulgaria pushes back eurozone bid to 2025

Bulgaria is pushing back its goal of joining the eurozone from 2024 to 2025, the finance minister said Friday, as the Balkan nation faces a fifth election in two years.

Finance Minister Rositza Velkova said parliament had been unable to pass necessary reforms on money laundering and other issues.

"The date of January 1, 2024 is no longer valid... The new target date is January 1, 2025," she told a press conference.

"Our European partners believe that Bulgaria is late with the adoption of the legislation," she added.

Bulgaria has been following a strict austerity regime since 1997 whereby the national currency, the lev, is currently pegged to the euro at a fixed rate.

The poor EU member will hold general elections on April 2. The latest parliament was dissolved at the start of February after just four months.

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Successive elections have produced fragmented parliaments with no party able to cobble together a working government.

Massive anti-graft protests in 2020 shook the government of then premier Boyko Borisov, who ruled Bulgaria for almost a decade.

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Source: AFP