Bulgaria has received encouraging signals at the Eurogroup meeting. "The country has made even greater progress in fulfilling the price stability criterion," said European Commissioner for the Economy Valdis Dombrovskis.

When Sofia considers that it is ready to submit a request for an extraordinary convergence report, we will assess whether it meets the criteria for successful integration into the eurozone, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe said.

By the end of February, Bulgaria will formally request the European Commission and the European Central Bank to prepare extraordinary convergence reports on membership in the eurozone, Bulgarian Minister of Finance Temenuzhka Petkova said after the forum in Brussels.