Bulgarian FinMin on CNN, BBC: Euro Zone Must Learn from Bulgaria

Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has talked in interviews for the BBC, CNN, Sky News, and Reuters in London. Photo from Finance Ministry

The euro zone and the rest of the EU should learn from Bulgaria's example as far as strict fiscal stability is concerned, Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has declared in interviews for major global media.

In a series of interviews in London, Djankov has spoken to the CNN, the BBC, Sky News, and Reuters.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, Djankov has declared that in spite of the ongoing difficulties, the euro will become the strongest global currency.

"What we learned from the global crisis is that we need strict fiscal rules," he stated, explaining his own brainchild, the proposed Finance Stability Pact – a set of legislative measures, including Constitutional amendments, designed to oblige Bulgarian governments by law to keep strict fiscal discipline.

"We are currently incorporating into our budget law a restriction on governments, preventing them from carrying out undisciplined fiscal policies. This is something that all EU nations should do, and that the euro zone states can learn from Bulgaria," Djankov told the BBC.

He stressed that Bulgaria's is extremely interested in the stability of the economic and fiscal outlooks of the euro zone states, especially because 70% of Bulgaria's foreign trade is with them.

Speaking in an interview for CNN show Quest Means Business, Djankov has also emphasized the lessons that the euro zone states can draw from Bulgaria's experience.

"Both the EU Finance Ministers, and the politicians and analysts must be aware that the problems in the euro zone cannot be resolved partially but need an overall solution," he declared.

When asked why Bulgaria wants to join "the sinking ship of the euro zone," Djankov told popular CNN host Richard Quest that with countries such as Bulgaria and the latest euro zone newcomers Estonia and Slovakia, the euro zone would turn into a more fiscally conservative club, a development that he thinks would benefit everyone.

"The euro zone has a lot to learn from these countries because we have gone through enormous restructuring of our economies and banking systems after the collapse of the communist regimes, and these lessons have been somehow forgotten," the Bulgarian Finance Minister stressed.

In his interview for CNN's Quest Means Business, Djankov has restated Bulgaria's opposition to the Franco-German idea for a harmonization of tax policies in the EU within the so called Euro-Plus-Pact. He stressed that Bulgaria, which has the lowest taxes in the EU, will keep in mind the tax harmonization ideas when it decides on its future accession to the euro zone.

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