The government is ready to adopt the euro from the beginning of next year. We will work for this together with the entire society, because this will only bring benefits to Bulgaria, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova told journalists, BNR reported.
She presented at the Ministry of Finance main highlights from national representative surveys and a qualitative study on the attitudes of citizens and businesses "Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone".
Boryana Dimitrova, manager of the "Alpha Research" agency, presented the results of two sociological surveys related to Bulgaria's integration into the EU. They are nationally representative and were conducted in April and May this year, she specified.
When asked whether Bulgaria should continue with its integration into the EU, 56.3 percent of people answered positively, while 29.6 percent disagreed, Dimitrova said.
In the survey conducted in May, 46.5 percent of citizens said they approved of adopting the euro and 46.8 percent said they did not approve of adopting the euro.
When asked the same question, 66.3 percent of business representatives said they approved of adopting the euro and only 33.6 percent said they did not approve of adopting the euro, Boryana Dimitrova said.
For her part, Temenuzhka Petrova commented that Bulgaria meets all the criteria for membership in the eurozone and we expect the EU Council to make a decision on entry on July 8. eurozone.
We hope that the process of entering the eurozone will be successful and that we will dispel all people's concerns, said the Finance Minister.
The attitudes of Bulgarian society are very clear - it is becoming indisputably clear that in the long term the majority of society categorically states the benefits of adopting the euro. However, it is becoming clear that society needs additional information about the process of adopting the euro and the government is working on this, said Minister Petkova.
The government recently signed memoranda with employers' and trade union organizations to work on the law on adopting the euro - in a calm and smooth manner. Let it be clear that not a single Bulgarian lev will be lost and that the BNB will convert every lev into euros at the set rate without time limits. By the end of the year, over 100 events will be held throughout the country and there will be meetings with businesses and citizens to familiarize them with the situation regarding the adoption of the euro, said Petkova.
During the period 8-16 April and 22-28 May, the "Alfa Research" agency conducted two nationally representative surveys of public attitudes among citizens and businesses regarding the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria. The client was the Ministry of Finance. 1,200 citizens over 16 years of age were surveyed in their homes through a direct standardized interview with tablets in April and May. 500 owners or representatives at the management level of businesses, responsible for making decisions for the development of the company, were surveyed separately.