Bulgaria and the euro

Convergence criteria

When it joined the EU in 2007, Bulgaria committed to switching its currency, the lev, to the euro, as stated in the 2005 EU accession treaty. The transition would occur once the country meets all the euro convergence criteria. As the lev was fixed to the Deutsche Mark at par, the lev's peg effectively switched to the euro on 1 January 1999, at the rate of 1.95583 leva = 1 euro, which was the Deutsche Mark's fixed exchange rate to the euro.

Before the Bulgarian euro coins had been designed, the Madara Rider had already been selected as the motif on the obverse ("national" side) of the coins. Two Bulgarian saints, Ivan Rilski and Paisius of Hilendar, are depicted on the Bulgarian euro coins. In this way, Bulgaria is the first Orthodox country to have a Christian character on its euro coins. Bulgaria officially joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) on 10 July 2020. Bulgarian government and central bank officials adopted a draft national plan for euro adoption on 30 June 2021, after stating that same day Bulgaria's intention to adopt the euro on 1 January 2024. In May 2022, the government adopted a more definitive version of its euro introduction plan, reaffirming the country's commitment to adopt the euro on the target date. On 21 February 2023, Bulgaria scrapped the idea of adopting the single currency on 1 January 2024 due to an internal political crisis.

The Maastricht Treaty, which Bulgaria acceded to by way of its EU accession treaty, requires that all European Union member states, except Denmark, join the euro once certain economic criteria are met. In November 2007, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski stated that his goal was to comply with all five convergence criteria by 2009 and adopt the euro in 2012. But Bulgaria did not comply with the requirement to be an ERM II member for at least two years, nor did it satisfy the price stability criterion in 2008. Bulgaria's inflation in the 12 months from April 2007 to March 2008 reached 9.4%, well above the reference value limit of 3.2%.

Bulgaria fulfilled the state budget criterion of only having a maximum deficit of 3% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The country had posted surpluses since 2003, which in 2007 represented 3.4% of its GDP (at the time, the EC forecast that it would remain at 3.2% of GDP in both 2008 and 2009). Bulgaria also complied with the public debt criteria. During the prior decade, the Bulgarian debt had declined from 50% of GDP to 18% in 2007, and was expected to reach 11% in 2009. Finally, the average for the long-term interest rate during the prior year was 4.7% in March 2008, well within the reference limit of 6.5%. A 2008 analysis said that Bulgaria would not be able to join the eurozone earlier than 2015 due to high inflation and the repercussions of the 2008 financial crisis. Some members of the government, notably economy minister Petar Dimitrov, speculated about unilaterally introducing the euro, which was not well received by the European Commission. Bulgaria met all five criteria in the last off-cycle convergence report published by the European Central Bank in June 2025.

Joining ERM II

The Bulgarian lev has been pegged to the euro since the latter was launched in 1999, at a fixed rate of €1 = BGN 1.95583, through a strictly managed currency board. Prior to that, the lev was pegged at par to the German mark. While the currency board which pegs Bulgaria to the euro has been seen as beneficial to the country fulfilling criteria so quickly, the ECB pressured Bulgaria to drop it as it did not know how to let a country using a currency board join the euro. The Bulgarian Prime Minister stated the desire to keep the currency board until the euro was adopted. However, factors such as high inflation, an unrealistic exchange rate with the euro and the country's low productivity were negatively affected by the system.

Simeon Dyankov, Bulgaria's finance minister, said in September 2009 that Bulgaria planned to enter ERM II that November, but this was delayed. It was then delayed further due to an increased budget deficit, outside the Maastricht criteria. From 2011 to 2020, Bulgaria's non-membership of the ERM II was the primary factor that prevented euro membership, as Bulgaria met the other criteria for euro adoption. In July 2011, Bulgaria's Minister of Finance Simeon Dyankov stated that the government would not adopt the euro as long as the European sovereign-debt crisis was ongoing.

In January 2015, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov (under Prime Minister Boyko Borisov) changed approach and said that it was possible for Bulgaria to join ERM II before the end of 2018. Goranov said he would immediately begin talks with the Eurogroup to establish a plan for joining ERM II. In July 2015, the Bulgarian government established a coordination council to prepare the country for eurozone membership. The coordination council was to draft a plan for the introduction of the euro, propose a target date, and organise the preparation and coordination of the expert working groups. This approach was supported by former Bulgarian National Bank governor Kolyo Paramov, who had been in office when the state currency board was established. Paramov argued that adoption would "trigger a number of positive economic effects":

• Sufficient money supply (leading to increased lending, which is needed to improve economic growth)
• Getting rid of the currency board that prevents the national bank from functioning as a lender of last resort to rescue banks in financial trouble
• Private and public lending benefiting from lower interest rates (at least half as high)

Former Bulgarian National Bank deputy governor Emil Harsev agreed with Paramov, stating that it was possible to adopt the euro in 2018 and that "Bulgaria's membership in the eurozone will bring only positive effect on the economy" because "since [the establishment of] the currency board in 1997, we have been accepting all the negative effects of accession into the eurozone without getting the positive ones (access to the European financial market)".

From 2017

When Borisov's government was re-elected in 2017, he declared his intention to apply to join ERM II, but Goranov elaborated that the government would only seek to join once the eurozone states were ready to approve the application, and that he expected to have clarity on the matter by the end of 2017. On taking the presidency of the EU Council in January 2018, Borisov indicated that no clarification had been given, but announced that he was going to pursue applications for both ERM II and Schengen by July 2018 regardless. Bulgaria sent a letter to the Eurogroup in July 2018 expressing its desire to join ERM II and committing to enter into a "close cooperation" agreement with the European banking union. In January 2019, Goranov said he hoped that Bulgaria could join the ERM II mechanism in July and introduce the euro on 1 January 2022. However, the first deadline was deferred to July 2019 due to extra conditions requested by eurozone governments, namely that Bulgaria:

• Join the European banking union at the same time as ERM II (meaning Bulgaria's banks must first pass stress tests)
• Reinforce supervision of the non-bank financial sector and fully implement EU anti money-laundering rules
• Thoroughly implement the reforms of the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification (CVM)

While the CVM reforms were mentioned, and progress in judicial reform and organised crime was expected, leaving the CVM was not a precondition. As of October 2019, Goranov's target was to enter the ERM II by April 2020. In January 2020, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that it was possible for Bulgaria to join ERM II later in 2020 and adopt the euro in 2023. Borisov stated in February 2020 that Bulgaria's application would be reviewed in July. In March, the Bulgarian central bank said that this target was no longer realistic due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, in April Borisov stated that he would push forward the application by the end of April. The reason he gave for this U-turn was the 500 billion euros rescue package to deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, which the finance ministers of the Eurogroup had agreed upon on 10 April. On 24 April, Fitch Ratings announced that they would probably upgrade Bulgaria's foreign currency issuer default ratings (IDR) between Bulgaria's accession to ERM II and euro adoption:

On 30 April 2020, Bulgaria officially submitted documents to the European Central Bank to apply to join ERM II, the first step to introducing the euro. On 12 May, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis stated that Bulgaria could join ERM II together with Croatia in July, which both countries did on 10 July. By the ECB decision adopted on 24 June 2020, Bulgaria and its national bank became a member of the European banking union under a close cooperation agreement which entered into force on 1 October 2020.

Joining the eurozone

Bulgaria adopted the euro as its official currency on 1 January 2026, following several delays. In February 2023, Finance Minister Rositsa Velkova announced that Bulgaria's target date for entry into the eurozone would be delayed from 1 January 2024 to 1 January 2025, primarily due to the projected inflation not meeting the inflation criterion in time. In April 2023, enough signatures had been collected to put the entry to a referendum. However, in June 2023 the referendum was rejected by Bulgaria's parliament with 98 votes against, 46 abstentions and 68 votes in favour. On 26 July 2023, the newly formed Bulgarian government adopted a programme which stated that the switch to the euro in January 2025 is one of the main government priorities. In November 2023, the Bulgarian euro coin design was revealed and approved by the Bulgarian National Bank.

In order to ensure full compliance with the legal criteria for euro adoption, the Bulgarian Parliament approved the necessary legislation on the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) on 1 February 2024. However, according to the assessment of the President of BNB, Dimitar Radev, the recently adopted constitutional revision (making it possible for the President or Vice President of BNB to be appointed as a temporary caretaker Prime Minister in case of failed attempts to form regular governments), and the recently adopted revision to the law on the BNB (making it possible for such a caretaker Prime Minister to resume his work and role at BNB after having completed his tenure as temporary caretaker Prime Minister), were both unlikely to meet ECB's convergence criteria for legal compliance. The ECB was not consulted on this specific change to the Bulgarian law, but were expected to reveal its assessment on this potential issue in its upcoming convergence report scheduled for publication in June 2024.

On 20 January 2024, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said in an interview that Bulgaria might be forced to delay its adoption of the euro to 1 July 2025 if the inflation criterion is not met in time, although the target date of 1 January 2025 remained unchanged. Finance Minister Assen Vassilev believed Bulgaria was on track for euro adoption at some point in time in 2025, as the last inflation criteria was projected to be met between June and September 2024, and the revised Bulgarian euro adoption law was expected to be approved by the ECB shortly.

The euro adoption law was launched as a draft law for public consultation from 25 March to 24 April, and subsequently will be subject to approval by the Bulgarian Parliament; the European Commission—although not yet ECB—had already approved the published version as of 26 March. The ECB proposed several amendments to the proposed euro adoption law on 2 May 2024. The Bulgarian Ministry of Finance later clarified that the proposed euro adoption law will never be assessed by ECB as part of their euro adoption compliance test of the national legislation in their convergence reports (due to this law only being a national matter), but stressed that it was important from a national perspective that the National Assembly vote and approve the law by the end of summer 2024. An information website (www.evroto.bg) was launched on 25 March, dedicated to communicate the progress towards introduction of the euro in Bulgaria and practicalities of the euro changeover, and the European Commission signed a Partnership Agreement for co-financing information campaigns towards Bulgarian citizens and businesses on all euro changeover aspects on 12 April.

After a planned government rotation and negotiations for a renewed government mandate for the next nine months failed, and subsequent attempts to form a new government among the elected parties were likewise unsuccessful, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev announced he would appoint a new caretaker Prime Minister and caretaker government tasked with organising an early election in June 2024. Analysts had warned that snap elections could risk delaying efforts for Bulgaria to adopt the euro in 2025. However, outgoing Finance Minister Assen Vassilev stated that preparations were so far advanced that at the current stage a caretaker government could ensure eurozone entry in 2025. Incoming caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev stated that the incoming caretaker government would continue to focus on achieving membership of the eurozone and "Schengen on land" among its priorities.

On 26 June 2024, the ECB released their report confirming that the country had failed to comply with the inflation criteria and was therefore unable to join the eurozone on 1 January 2025 target date. According to BNB's press website evroto.bg, it was projected that the inflation criteria would be met by the end of 2024, and that if it was, the country would request an off-cycle compliance re-assessment to get approval to adopt the euro as soon as possible. In June 2024, Bulgaria's acting finance minister said Bulgaria would need to reduce inflation in order to meet ECB requirements to adopt the euro in January 2026.

As of July 2024, the process was in an advanced phase. Once the required level of convergence had been achieved, an off-cycle evaluation would be requested. On 26 July 2024, the members of the Bulgarian National Assembly adopted a decision obliging the Bulgarian government to speed up the process of introducing the common European currency. On 7 August, the law on the introduction of the euro was adopted, which represented the most important legislative act necessary for the smooth running of the currency changeover process. Out of 167 present members, 106 MPs voted in support of the law, in particular MPs from the pro-European majority in the form of PP-DB, GERB and DPS, while 48 MPs from Revival (Vazrazhdane), independents and two Socialists voted against. 77 MPs were absent and 11 MPs from There is Such a People abstained. This law determines the terms and ways in which the currency will be changed. It was the final important legal act on the way to Bulgaria's euro adoption before fulfilling the last Maastricht criteria—that of price stability and, accordingly, the subsequent decision of the Council of the EU to introduce the euro in Bulgaria. After the council made another decision on the issue, some regulations and other subnormative acts were to be adopted to regulate in greater detail what was written in the package of laws that Bulgaria adopted on the path to the eurozone. On 20 August 2024, President Rumen Radev signed a decree promulgating in the Bulgarian State Gazette the law on the euro, with which it officially entered into force.

Developments in 2025

According to data from Eurostat in mid-January 2025, Bulgaria's inflation was 2.6%—only 0.1% from meeting the inflation criteria. On 17 January 2025, it was reported that the government was expected to submit a request for an off-cycle convergence report to the European Commission and the ECB within two weeks. In a 23 January 2025 speech, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova announced the country would not submit such a request until the inflation rate criteria had been met, with 0.1% still missing.

On 22 February 2025, thousands of Bulgarian far-right Revival party supporters tried to break into the headquarters of the European Union mission in Sofia during a protest against the country's plans to adopt the euro in 2026. On 24 February 2025, after the government deemed that the country had now met the inflation criteria, the Council of Ministers adopted a decision to formally request an off-cycle convergence report from the European Commission and European Central Bank. The Bulgarian National Bank and Ministry of Finance sent the letter formally requesting the report the following day.

On 9 May 2025, in a surprising move seen by some as a populist rhetoric, the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev announced that he would submit a proposal to parliament to hold a referendum on the euro, which was subsequently turned down by the speaker of parliament. The Bulgarian supreme court had previously deemed such a referendum unconstitutional as it contradicts both national and EU law.

On 4 June 2025, the European Commission and European Central Bank published their off-cycle convergence reports, according to which Bulgaria fulfilled the 5 convergence criteria. The European Commission proposed a Council Decision and Regulation to enact Bulgaria accession to the eurozone effective 1 January 2026. On 19 June 2025, the finance ministers of the Eurogroup member states unanimously recommended that Bulgaria be approved to adopt the euro. On 20 June 2025, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council unanimously supported Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone. On 24 June 2025, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Subcommittee on Tax Matters in the European Parliament's approved a draft report recommending approval of Bulgaria joining the eurozone effective 1 January 2026. The vote was 46 in favour, with 3 against and 5 abstentions.

During a meeting of the European Council on 26 June 2025, EU leaders welcomed the fulfilment of all the convergence criteria set out in the Treaty. They endorsed the Commission's proposal that Bulgaria adopt the euro on 1 January 2026 and invited the Council to swiftly adopt the relevant Commission proposals. On 8 July 2025, the European Parliament endorsed Bulgaria's bid to adopt the euro and join the eurozone effective 1 January 2026. Members of the European Parliament, by 531 votes in favour, 69 against and 79 abstentions, adopted a report confirming Bulgaria fulfilled the criteria for adopting the euro. Later that day, the Council granted final approval by unanimously adopting the final three legal acts. One of the three legal acts sets the conversion rate between the euro and the Bulgarian lev at 1.95583 lev per 1 euro. This completed the process for Bulgaria to become the 21st member of the euro area. The documents were signed by Stephanie Lose on behalf of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU in the presence of Temenuzhka Petkova, Valdis Dombrovskis, Paschal Donohoe, and Luis de Guindos.

From 8 August 2025, all sales prices were listed in both lev and euro using the same font and colour. Exemptions were made for books, school textbooks and supplies, which will be listed under both currencies from 1 January 2026. Due to technical restrictions taxi displays and gas stations would only list prices in lev. However, gas stations prices in both currencies should be visible in a prominent location inside the gas station. In addition, purchase receipts list the paid amount in both lev and euro. On 11 December 2025 the Board of Governors of the European Stability Mechanism approved Bulgaria's application to become a member and the technical terms necessary for the country's accession to the ESM.

Status

Effects of euro adoption

Since the lev had been pegged to the euro at a fixed rate, it was argued before formal adoption that Bulgaria was already a de facto member of the eurozone, as it could not pursue an independent monetary policy and it was bound by the interest rate policy of the European Central Bank, without having a say in monetary strategy. Therefore, Bulgaria would not lose any financial tools by adopting the euro, at least none that it had not already voluntarily surrendered by adopting its currency board. Adopting the euro and thereby becoming a de jure member of the eurozone was therefore argued to enhance Bulgaria's position by giving it a seat at the European Central Bank's decision-making table.

Linguistic issues

Bulgarian Cyrillic script and its non-straightforward transliteration of the word euro initially caused issues when the European Central Bank and European Commission insisted that Bulgaria adopt the name ЕУРО (i.e., euro) rather than the original ЕВРО (i.e., evro) (from Bulgarian Европа , meaning Europe), arguing that the currency's name should be standardised across the EU as much as possible. Bulgaria maintained that its language's alphabet and phonetic orthography warranted the exception. At the 2007 EU Summit in Lisbon, the issue was decided in Bulgaria's favour, making евро the official Cyrillic spelling from 13 December 2007.

This ruling affected the design of euro banknotes. The second series of notes (beginning with the €5 note issued from 2013) includes the term "ЕВРО" and the abbreviation "ЕЦБ" (short for Европейска централна банка, the Bulgarian name of the European Central Bank). The first series only had the standard Latin alphabet "EURO" and Greek "ΕΥΡΩ". The Bulgarian National Bank requested that the Institute for Bulgarian Language provide a linguistic guideline for the adoption of the euro. It was prescribed that the eurocent should be written евроцент , but that the word for cent, стотинка, could also be used. In Bulgarian, the plural of euro is евро (without inflection in plural form), and this was noted as an acceptable variation. The words стотинка and стотинки will continue to be present on Bulgarian coins, or more precisely, they are minted on the national side of Bulgarian euro coins. The 1 euro cent coin reads "стотинка" and the other 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 euro cent coins read "стотинки".

Design selection and circulation

The Bulgarian euro coins entered circulation on 1 January 2026, marking Bulgaria's official adoption of the currency. The designs were finalized after a public selection process and official approval by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and the European Union.

Debates regarding the design of the "national" (obverse) side of the coins began in earnest in 2008. Major contenders for the national symbol included the Madara Rider, ancient traditional nestinars (Bulgarian fire dancers), the Cyrillic script, the Rila Monastery, and the Tsarevets medieval fortress near Veliko Tarnovo.

A national vote was held between 17 and 29 June 2008, via post offices, fuel stations, and schools. The Madara Rider was announced as the winner, securing a plurality of 25.44% of the vote.

On 24 July 2023, BNB Governor Dimitar Radev announced the Governing Council's decision that the Bulgarian national side of euro coins would mirror the design of the Bulgarian lev coins previously in circulation. This design choice was officially approved by the BNB in November 2023 and by the Council of the European Union in February 2024.

In preparation for the launch, the BNB Governing Council approved revised graphic designs on 9 April 2025, updating the issue year from "2025" to "2026". Following the Council of the EU's final approval for adoption, the Bulgarian Mint commenced minting to ensure supply for the 1 January 2026 rollout.

The coins feature the Bulgarian alphabet (Cyrillic script), which was already present on euro banknotes. They also display the name of the fractional unit of the former currency, the lev (СТОТИНКА/СТОТИНКИ). Alongside Greek euro coins and Cyprus euro coins, Bulgarian euro coins are the only euro coins that do not use the Latin alphabet on their national side.

During the dual-use period through January 2026 both lev and euros will be accepted for payments, but change will be in euros. At the end of this period the lev will no longer be accepted.

Public opinion

The following are the annual Eurobarometer polls on the question of whether Bulgarians are more in favour or against the idea of introducing the euro in their country.

Adoption Controversy

The Zhelyazkov Government and a majority in the National Assembly supported Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro. Officials characterized the move as a further step in Bulgaria's integration within European Union structures. At the same time, the issue remained contentious domestically, with some contemporary polling reporting greater opposition than support for adoption.

Several initiatives sought a referendum on whether Bulgaria should adopt the euro or retain the lev, including a popular initiative and a proposal initiated by the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev. In each instance, the parliamentary majority in the National Assembly voted not to hold a referendum and proceeded with euro adoption through parliamentary decision-making. In the case of the president's proposal, the Chair initially declined to put the request to a vote; the Constitutional Court ruled this approach unconstitutional, after which the Assembly voted 135–81 against conducting a referendum. Similar referendum proposals in 2023 and 2024 were also rejected by the Assembly majority despite support from some opposition lawmakers. In late 2025, another initiative reported collecting 200,000 in-person signatures related to euro adoption.

A series of protests against euro adoption took place in 2025, including demonstrations around the time of the changeover that were supported by parties opposed to the policy. Opponents cited concerns such as possible inflationary effects, reduced national discretion over fiscal and monetary policy, and questions of national identity; some also argued that rejecting referendum requests after signature thresholds had been reported as met undermined democratic legitimacy. Supporters of adoption emphasized continuity with existing EU commitments and argued that euro adoption should be decided through representative institutions.

The political context also contributed to public debate. The Zhelyazkov government had resigned following the 2025 anti-corruption protests,and was operating in an interim capacity at the time of the euro's adoption; some observers said this heightened tensions. In his televised New Year's address for 2026, President Radev criticized the decision not to hold a referendum, stating that "those in power chose not to listen to the citizens".

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