At Wednesday’s meeting, the Government approved the follow-up commitments our country should implement after joining ERM II and the Banking Union, as of July 10, 2020, as well as an Action Plan with specific measures on them.
After the draft commitments were approved by the Cabinet on 1 July 2020, the Minister of Finance negotiated them with the European partners, including members of the Euro group and representatives of Denmark.
The agreed follow-up commitments do not differ significantly from those approved by the government as a basis for negotiations. They are a natural extension and an upgrade of the measures already taken before our accession to ERM II, as well as of the ongoing reforms in the areas of the non-banking financial sector, the governance framework for state-owned enterprises, the insolvency framework and the anti-money laundering framework. There are also measures to address the legal inconsistencies found in the ECB and EC's 2020 Convergence Reports.
The implementation of the Action Plan, including measures to fulfill Bulgaria's subsequent commitments after accession to the Exchange Rate Mechanism II, will be part of the conditions for the subsequent adoption of our country in the euro area and the introduction of the euro, after meeting all convergence criteria, in accordance with Article 140 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Five Bulgarian commercial banks come under the direct supervision of the European Central Bank as of October 1 this year. This is part of the cooperation with the European financial institution and is envisaged on Bulgaria's path to joining the euro area and the euro.
The ECB's list includes UniCredit Bulbank AD, DSK Bank AD, United Bulgarian Bank AD, Eurobank Bulgaria AD, known as Postbank and Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD. This decision is part of the process of close cooperation between the ECB and the BNB, i.e. with the European Banking Union under a Decision, taken by the European Central Bank of June,24, 2020.
The start date of the close cooperation between the ECB and the BNB is 1 October 2020. From this date Radoslav Milenkov – Deputy Governor, Head of Banking Supervision of the BNB, will represent our country on the Supervisory Board of the ECB, with the same rights and obligations as all other members, including the right to vote.
