The great debate concerning the quick introduction of the euro in Eastern Europe is over and it went out with a whimper, rather than a bang.

The leaked International Monetary Fund (IMF) confidential report, published by the Financial Times on April 6, only briefly threatened to reignite the row between the euro zone countries and their neighbours to the east. It fizzled out as policymakers ignored it, though not before the European Central Bank reiterated its stance that it would not relax its rules to facilitate euroisation, as the IMF report suggested.

Fair enough, the report was drafted in early March, when international financial institutions were bent on persuading the European Union and Eastern Europe to support a region-wide anti-crisis strategy. As has been pointed out in the aftermath of FT’s report, the G20 agreement to increase the IMF’s fire-fighting "war chest" has provided a different solution to that strategy and one that has garnered more support both in Western and Eastern Europe.

Were the report’s suggestion to be accepted, Bulgaria’s currency entry into the eurozone waiting room would have been almost painless because it was already pegged to the euro, while at the same time restoring investor confidence. While Bulgarian authorities will always support a quicker switch to the euro, thankfully the voices that called for the unilateral euroisation of the economy have been silenced over the past few months.

Especially for Bulgaria, the ECB’s unyielding stance could perhaps help drive home the point that EU institutions do not just frown on ad hoc changes to the rules, but reject them outright.

The message has been delivered repeatedly and with the outmost bluntness that the European Commission is capable of, which admittedly is not much. Whether the issue is the contracting of EU funds or re-starting the Kozloduy nuclear reactors or Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev’s latest idea for closer European expert involvement in Government, the EC has inevitably said that it had certain rules in place and did not plan to make any exceptions for Bulgaria.

The EU has often been criticised for its bureaucratic sluggishness, but in this particular case more of the same would be welcome until Sofia gets the message that it is not above the rules and stops pouting at their unfairness. Maybe it will some day, but it would be hard to see it happen unless the attitude that whoever is in government is above the law changes in domestic affairs first.