The first Bulgarian 2-euro commemorative coin on the theme of "The Bulgarian Alphabet", which the BNB planned to issue in the second half of the year, has been stopped due to an objection from another country.
An information note from the EU Council dated May 29 states that, in accordance with the regulation, Bulgaria officially notified the other member states of the coin's specifications on May 20.
A country whose name is redacted in the document filed an objection at the end of the seven-day deadline for this on May 27.
The note was published in "Ex" by Dutch diplomat Rainier Jaarsma.
"Interesting: an unknown EU member state has raised an objection against a design submitted by #Bulgaria 🇧🇬 for a special euro coin 'commemorating the Bulgarian alphabet', he announced.
Jaarsma also published the EU Council's refusal to share the letter with the objection, because the sending country explicitly prohibited it and "so as not to jeopardize the extremely delicate decision-making process'.
Interesting: an unknown EU member state has raised an objection against a design submitted by #Bulgaria 🇧🇬 for a special euro coin 'commemorating the Bulgarian alphabet'.
The Council also refuses to share the letter, 'not to undermine the very delicate decision-making process'. pic.twitter.com/GXxYvjpsvl
The diplomat also published the statement of the Bulgarian National Bank, which states that the Bulgarian alphabet is one of the oldest in Europe. The planned circulation is one million.
The objection was raised against the following submission, filed by the Bulgarian National Bank last month: pic.twitter.com/gImKCavg3D
The General Secretariat of the Council of the EU told Vesti.bg that the document contains a letter and information about the member state that filed the objection to Bulgaria's proposal for a commemorative coin dedicated to the Bulgarian alphabet.
However, the institution is denied full access to the document. The reason given is that the letter is a document from a third party, an EU Member State, which has expressly opposed its disclosure at this stage of the procedure.
“After careful consideration of all the principles relating to this request, the General Secretariat of the Council has concluded that it must refuse access to the letter and the information concerning the Member State concerned at this stage, as such disclosure would seriously undermine the very sensitive decision-making process that is ongoing, as well as the protection of the public interest in monetary policy“, the response states.
The Council of the EU added that it currently has no other documents in its possession regarding the request. According to the institution, no meetings of the Council or its preparatory bodies have been held to date where the issue was included in the agenda.
In addition to the commemorative one, the BNB's plan for this year includes five collector coins, Dir.bg reports.
The first was released at the end of January. It is on the theme of "125 years of electric trams in Bulgaria", silver, with a face value of 10 euros.
The second was released at the end of March. It is on the theme of "150 years since the birth of Krastyo Sarafov", copper, with a face value of 5 euros.
The third was issued in April. It is on the theme of "150 years of the April Uprising", silver, with a face value of 10 euros.
By the end of the year, a silver 10 euro with the Prebrazhensky Monastery and a gold 100 euro with Saint Ivan of Rila remain to be issued.