Prime Minister Zhelyazkov after meeting with the Presidents of the ECB and the Eurogroup: I hope that the efforts for fiscal discipline and balanced budgets will yield the expected result

The importance of membership in the eurozone for Bulgaria was the focus of the meeting of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov with the President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde and the President of the Eurogroup Pascal Donahue. The three talked in Brussels, where a meeting of the European Council is taking place.

Prime Minister Zhelyazkov introduced Christine Lagarde and Pascal Donahue to the budget procedure, which is currently underway in the Bulgarian Parliament. He also emphasized the compliance of the draft State Budget Act for 2005 with the medium-term fiscal and structural plan.

"Bulgaria submitted a request for an extraordinary convergence report in February this year, when it met the Maastricht criteria for membership in the eurozone. I hope that the efforts of Bulgarian society in recent decades to observe fiscal discipline, for balanced budgets, will yield the expected result," Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said after the meeting.