January 19 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria needs to attract more foreign investments and increase the productivity of its economy before joining the Eurozone, the EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said on Friday.
"We welcome the enthusiasm for the introduction of the euro, but in order for the Eurozone to be successful, there are criteria and they must be met. This is in the interest of both Bulgaria and the whole EU," Moscovici said in a live broadcast of Bulgarian public radio BNR.
Bulgaria needs to strengthen its labour market and cope with social inequalities, Moscovici added.
Earlier this month, Bulgaria's finance minister Vladislav Goranov said the government will most likely apply for joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II), the system set up by the EU for the preparation of member states for the introduction of the euro, in the first half of 2018 while the country holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Moscovici said in May the European Commission aims to make adopting the euro more attractive to member states outside the currency bloc in a bid to make the union more tight-knit after Britain’s vote to leave.
"I am looking forward to it with interest because Bulgaria is one of the countries outside the Eurozone. We are convinced that this is the only natural course of the Bulgarian monetary policy," Goranov said at the time.
According to the last Convergence Report of the European Central Bank (ECB), issued in June 2016, Bulgaria's central bank law, the law on the prevention of conflicts of interest and the law on credit institutions do not comply with all the requirements for central bank independence, the monetary financing prohibition, and legal integration into the Eurozone.