Bulgaria’s efforts to adopt the euro
03.06.2024
Efforts to adopt the euro
Bulgaria is in the process of adapting the Euro as its official currency since the launch of the National Programme for Adapting the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria. The initial plan to adopt from 1 January 2024 has been scrapped, as the country could not meet the required inflation rate and some additional laws had to be passed. The next Bulgarian goal was to adopt the Euro by 1 January 2025 but most recently due to problems with the price stability, despite the decrease in inflation there are new plans to move the date of adoption to July 2025.The Bulgarian Lev has been on the currency board ever since 1997 and its exchange rate has been fixed to the German Mark and later the Euro at the rate of 1.95583 Levs for 1 Euro. With the accession of Bulgaria to the EU in 2007 the country committed to switching the Bulgarian Lev to the Euro once Bulgaria met the convergence criteria. Conversion is the change of the monetary unit in which an amount or value is denominated from Leva into Euro and it mainly refers to prices, loans, deposits and financial instruments. The Madara Rider, one of the country’s most prominent ancient symbols carved on a high cliff above the village of Madara in North Eastern Bulgaria – a knight riding a horse and defeating a lion – was selected as the motif on the obverse (the national) side of the Bulgarian Euro coins.Benefits
There would be many benefits, both to ordinary Bulgarians and businesses mostly referred to: price stability, easily comparing the prices of food and goods in the other Area member states to the benefit of the consumers, improving the economic stability and growth and better integration with the big European financial markets.
