The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) are expected to finally give their approval to Bulgaria to adopt the euro as early as January 1, 2026, making it the 21st member of the Block Monetary Union.

Specifically, an exhibition is expected to be published next Wednesday and is expected to approve states.

Bulgaria’s accession to the euro would help the country boost trade with the rest of the union, reduce trading costs and enhance its influence in Brussels.

‘Integration in the euro will only boost the [κυριαρχία] of Bulgaria – we will participate in the ECB decision -making process, “Atana Pekanov, a Bulgarian economist and former deputy prime minister of the country, told Politico.

For decades, LEV – the local currency – was linked to the euro, but the country had no reason to monetary policy decisions, as it was not a member. If Bulgaria joins the single currency as scheduled in 2026, the Bulgarian central banker will take an official position on the ECB Board of Directors. However, as it will only be the 13th largest member of the Union, representing less than 1% of its GDP, its influence on the Council will be limited.

Concerns remain

At the same time, however, concerns about its inclusion in the euro by critics remain. As they say, the adoption of the single currency could, for example, cause at least one one -off price increase – in particular affecting the poorest households in rural areas – as businesses exploit the transition.

In the medium term, low domestic prices also tend to be adapted to higher European standards thanks to increased trade in the Union. This was the model for recent adopted countries such as Slovakia, Estonia and Lithuania, which initially showed increases in inflation.

There are fears that high inflation will hurt basic goods such as vegetables, especially in rural areas where consumers have fewer choices.

“[Οι αγροτικοί ψηφοφόροι είναι σκεπτικοί] Not because they are Euroscepticists, but because of fears of increasing life costs, “said Pekanov, who is a major supporter of the euro integration.

Coordinated with such concerns, Bulgarian President Roumen Radev was shocked across the country, having announced earlier this month that he wanted to hold a national referendum to postpone the country’s accession to the euro.

This, however, is unlikely to be accepted by the country’s constitutional court, which has already ruled in previous cases that such a vote would be unconstitutional.

Radef’s announcement is also not popular in parliament, where the majority of Bulgarian parties support the adoption of the euro.

In order to integrate Bulgaria into the euro, its average inflation from April 2024 to April 2025 must be within 1.5 percentage of the three EU countries with the lowest inflation.

In 2024 these were Ireland (1%), Italy (1.4%) and Luxembourg (1.6%).

Inflation in Bulgaria decreased from 4.7% in 2023 to 2.6% in 2024. However, it is expected to rise to 3.6% this year – well above 2.1% of the eurozone for 2025 – mainly due to the increase in VAT in many species at the beginning of the year.