Bulgaria

Insolvent Romanian insurer Euroins, under the external management of CITR insolvency experts, has sued the Bulgarian reinsurance company EIG Re in order to recover some RON 800 million (EUR 160 million) transferred by the Romanian subsidiary a couple of weeks before losing its operating license, Romania-Insider.com reported. CITR sued EIG Re, a reinsurance firm in the Eurohold group, both in Romania and Bulgaria, Economica.net reported. The money was transferred to EIG Re under a contract with unusual clauses that block Euroins’ access to the funds in case it loses the operating license.
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Bulgaria's government on Friday approved a plan to join the euro zone as of Jan. 1, 2024, amid concerns within the ruling coalition over the lack of detailed analysis on the impact of the move, Reuters reported. Political uncertainty and three elections last year delayed the plan, drafted after Bulgaria was admitted together with Croatia to the ERM-2 mechanism, a mandatory stage for joining the euro in 2020. The European Union's poorest member, which already pegs its lev currency to the euro, has pledged to adopt the single currency at its current fixed rate in 2024.
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Russia will cut off the gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday in a major escalation in the standoff between Moscow and Europe over energy supplies and the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. Moscow is making good on a threat to halt gas supplies to countries that refuse President Vladimir Putin’s new demand to pay for the fuel in rubles. The European Union has rejected the demand in principle but now payment deadlines are starting to fall due, governments across Europe need to decide whether to accept Putin’s terms or lose crucial supplies -- and run the risk of energy rationing.
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