Bulgaria voted out. Lev to replace euro in January

EU countries voted on Tuesday for Bulgaria to join the eurozone on January 1, 2026. At the beginning of next year, Bulgaria will become the 21st EU member state in the eurozone.

- This is of course a historic day for Bulgaria, (...) but also a good day for the entire EU, because (it results in) the strengthening and expansion of the euro zone and thus the international importance of this currency - said Valdis Dombrovskis, EU Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, on Tuesday.

Tuesday's vote on three pieces of legislation, including the introduction of the euro and the exchange rate, finalizes the legal process of bringing Bulgaria into the eurozone.

Whether a country can adopt the common currency is decided by the member states based on the assessment of the European Commission. The EC assessed Bulgaria's efforts positively on 4 June.

The condition for joining the eurozone is to meet four criteria (known as convergence criteria). These are: price stability (low inflation), stable public finances (budget deficit below 3% of GDP and public debt below 60% of GDP), exchange rate stability (participation in the so-called ERM II mechanism, the so-called eurozone waiting room, for at least two years without serious exchange rate disturbances) and convergence of long-term interest rates (the average nominal long-term interest rate may be higher by a maximum of 2 percentage points than the average interest rates in the three EU countries with the lowest inflation).

Bulgaria joined ERM II on 10 July 2020. Since then, the Bulgarian lev has been pegged to the euro (1 euro is equivalent to 1.95583 Bulgarian lev).

Apart from Bulgaria, there are currently six EU countries outside the eurozone: Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Denmark.

From Brussels Maria Wiśniewska (PAP)

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