The European Commission announced on Wednesday that Bulgaria met the conditions to adopt the single currency on January 1, 2026, which will make it the 21st Member of the euro zone, three years after the entrance of Croatia. The formal decision must be taken on July 8 by EU finance ministers, but opposition is not expected, while this country of 6.4 million inhabitants, the poorest in the block, meets all technical criteria. The European Central Bank (ECB) also gave a positive opinion on Wednesday.
“Thanks to the euro, the Bulgarian economy will become stronger, with more exchanges with the partners of the euro zone, more foreign direct investments, improved access to funds, more quality jobs and better income,” he said in a press release.
In this member country of the European Union since 2007, the possibility of joining the single currency is far from unanimous. Thousands of people gathered on Saturday in Sofia to say their opposition. The project feeds fear at a price and nourishes the wrath of the Eurofobes. According to recent surveys, almost half of the questioned rejects the country’s entry into the euro zone next year.
350 million inhabitants
In a report published on Wednesday, at the request of Sofia, the European Commission, however, concluded that Bulgaria met “the conditions to adopt the single currency.” These economic criteria include pricing stability, healthy public finances, stability in the national currency (Lev) and interest rates that do not diverge too much from the other EU countries.
The single European currency was created on January 1, 1999 for electronic transactions. But it took a concrete form in 2002, with the circulation of pieces and tickets, to replace the national currencies of 12 EU member states, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Later, eight other countries joined: Slovenia in 2007, Chipre and Malta in 2008, Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011), Latvia (2014), Lithuania (2015) and Croatia in 2023. The euro zone already brings together 350 million inhabitants, pending Bulgaria.
The single currency is a symbol of European unity and sovereignty. All EU countries have committed the theory of joining it as soon as they meet the conditions, but a calendar is not established. The only exception: Denmark that negotiated an exemption after a referendum that rejected the euro in 2000.
Source: BFM TV
