Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Assen Vassilev says the neighboring country’s process to join the euro zone is ongoing, but the exact entry date may be delayed by several months as authorities in Sofia struggle to meet the criteria for entry in 2025. according to Bloomberg, taken by Agerpes.

Assen Vasilev said Bulgaria would request an emergency assessment report once it met the criteria, and accession would also be possible in March or July next year. Currently, all 20 countries of the eurozone have made the transition to the single currency since January 1.

“We have not given up on January 1, 2025,” said Assen Vasiliev in an interview with Bloomberg. Achieving the goal of entry early next year is “close, very close,” Vasiliev said.

Bulgaria has been plagued by political instability, including a series of shaky coalitions and caretaker governments that have hampered its efforts to join the eurozone. The war in Ukraine and last year’s European energy crisis have also changed plans to meet the inflation target.

Recently, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe announced that he is optimistic about Bulgaria’s chances of joining the euro in 2025. Donohoe said it was up to the government in Sofia to say whether it wanted to demand a new economic assessment.

“Bulgaria could join in 2025 and all the efforts now being made to meet the inflation target this year are important,” Paschal Donohoe said on Friday.

However, political tension is a normal phenomenon for Bulgaria. The two main parties, which last year agreed to an unusual alliance in hopes of breaking the impasse, are at odds over reform plans and administrative appointments, threatening to tear up a nine-month government deal.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Monday gave the mandate of Prime Minister Maria Gabriel, a former European Commissioner and Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Nikolay Denkov, who resigned. Gabriel, a member of the liberal-conservative GERB party, has a week to present a new cabinet. If the attempt to form a new pro-Western government in Sofia succeeds, it will avoid new elections in Bulgaria for the sixth time in three years.

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