June 27 (SeeNews) - Only 32% of Bulgarians support the country's plans to join the euro area, a recent opinion poll showed.
Bulgaria took the commitment to adopt the single currency upon its accession to the EU in 2007. The local currency, the lev, has been pegged to the euro at an exchange rate of 1.95582 levs per euro exchange rate since 1999.
About 42% of Bulgarians are opposed to the country's planned accession to the eurozone, the survey conducted by Alpha Research polling agency showed. The poll was carried out in the June 12 - June 22 period among 1,024 respondents.
Earlier this month finance minister Vladislav Goranov reiterated the government's stand that the country's entry into the eurozone would have beneficial effects on the economy.
In June last year, the European Central Bank said that Bulgaria complies with most of the quantitative economic criteria for eurozone entry, but the country is not fulfilling all of the obligations laid down in the Treaty, including the legal convergence criteria.
The euro convergence criteria are the criteria which EU members are required to meet to enter the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and adopt the euro as their currency. The criteria are measured through the consumer price inflation rate, budget deficit, government debt, long-term interest rate and deviation from central exchange rate.
In May the country's annual consumer price inflation stood at 2.3% and the long-term interest rate was 1.74%. The state budget showed a surplus of 1.5% of GDP in the January-May period. Government debt amounted to 6.5 billion levs, or 13.4% of the country's GDP at the end of May.
The survey also showed that half of Bulgarians support the country's accession to the border-free Schengen area, while 23% hold the opposite opinion.
Most of the respondents believe Bulgaria has not met the criteria to join the Schengen area, as 79% said corruption remains high and 70% criticise the judiciary.
Protection of the country's border as an external EU border is insufficient, according to most of respondents.