Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest country, moved a step closer to joining the euro yesterday (12 July). After a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) said an evaluation could be completed in “around a year”. “The European Commission welcomes Bulgaria’s efforts to join the eurozone,” Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President of the European Commission told a news conference. “We might expect the ECB to complete its overall assessment in around a year,” added members of the eurozone in a statement. Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said ... (full story)