Bulgaria ready to switch to the euro despite reluctance

Bulgaria is preparing to switch its currency: European Union finance ministers will give their final green light on Tuesday for the Eastern European country to adopt the euro. As of January 1, 2026, the eurozone will have 21 members, including this country of 6.4 million inhabitants, one of the poorest in the bloc. The vote by ministers from the 27 member states, scheduled for early this afternoon, is expected to be a mere formality.

The European Commission already declared in early June that Bulgaria met all the necessary conditions for adopting the euro. As did the European Central Bank (ECB), which also issued a positive opinion. In Bulgaria, a member of the EU since 2007, the prospect of abandoning the national currency, the lev, is far from unanimous.

In recent weeks, several thousand protesters, holding "No to the Euro" signs, have gathered in the streets of the capital Sofia to express their opposition to the plan. Many fear that the currency change will fuel a surge in prices, which could, in turn, fuel the anger of Europhobes. According to recent polls, nearly half of those surveyed oppose the country's entry into the eurozone next year.

Euro supporters, on the other hand, see it as an important step that would strengthen Bulgaria's Western geopolitical anchor and protect it from the Kremlin's influence. The end of Bulgaria's accession process comes at a time when the euro has gained value against the dollar, following repeated threats of tariffs from US President Donald Trump.

Bulgaria, whose lev is already pegged to the euro, would have liked to switch to the euro earlier, but has been prevented from doing so until now by excessively high inflation amid a serious political crisis. The single European currency was launched on January 1, 1999, for electronic transactions. But it took concrete form from January 1, 2002, with the introduction of euro coins and banknotes, replacing the national currencies of 12 EU member states, including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

They were later joined by eight other countries: Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and, most recently, Croatia in 2023. All EU countries have theoretically committed to joining as soon as they meet the conditions, but no timetable has been set. The only exception is Denmark, which negotiated an exemption after a referendum rejecting the euro in 2000.