Bulgaria to Adopt the Euro

https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/06/05/bulgaria-to-adopt-the-euro-how-do-countries-join-the-eurozone

by geox • 1 year ago

56 49 1 year ago

euronews.com

aorth2• 1 year ago

I happened to be in downtown Sofia last night by chance and saw the massive protest.

https://apnews.com/article/bulgaria-euro-protest-nationalist...

windowshopping• 1 year ago

I don't know if it's their intention but as soon as the article mentions that the protest leader is pro-Russian, I immediately assume anything he stands for is wrong and therefore euro adoption must be good. Of course someone pro-Russian is trying to push countries away from integrating with the West, and I have to assume any arguments he's making are probably disingenuous and misleading.

akmarinov7• 1 year ago

And you’re right in this case!

petre• 1 year ago

There were even Russians at some of the anti Euro protests. Probably proped up by the Kremlin through Tiktok and Telegram.

Bulgaria has a pegged currency to the Euro since forever, they got quite depopulated after 1991 and their only chance is to become a tourist destination and to attract some investments from Türkye and maybe Greece, because nobody else would invest. The fact that Romania isn't interested in builing more bridges over the Danube and that Serbia isn't part of the EU also puts the northern part of Bulgaria in a tight spot. If you want to see what a depopulated country looks like, travel through northern Bulgaria. It looks like the descriptions from the book The World Without Us.

LfLxfxxLxfxx• 1 year ago

If opposition to the Euro is so massive, can't they simply hold a referendum over it?

akmarinov7• 1 year ago

It’s not, it’s a couple hundred people and it’s mostly old folks that are 60+, as they’re easy to be riled up due to them longing for russian occupation.

Also a referendum on the topic was ruled illegal, because it’ll violate the EU accession, where EU adoption is mandatory when criteria are met.

Also it’s too late now, it all depends on two votes on the 8th of July by the ministers of finance and the EU parliament. Bulgaria has no way of pulling out now, without doing massive damage to their EU integration, credit score and investors’ interest.

saturn_vk• 1 year ago

The Bulgarian currency has been pegged to the Deutsche Mark for more than twenty years now. This means that we’ve pretty much been using the euro since its inception, and any opposition is just a populist manoeuvring

aorth2• 1 year ago

Adoption of the Euro currency is mandatory for European Union member states. Only a few states have negotiated an exception (Denmark, previously UK?) and others like Sweden apparently keep delaying somehow. Bulgaria doesn't have much leverage I don't think...

ibobev• 1 year ago

The Bulgarian parliament refused to organize a referendum despite the civil petition for such.

t0bia_s4• 1 year ago

Somehow it was possible to do referendum about entering EU membership, but there was none referendum about leaving EU except GB. There would be probably few states where majority would like to leave EU.

oliwarner• 1 year ago

[Eventually] joining the Euro is part of the rules to join the EU. One could say they've already voted for this.

As a victim of Brexit, I'd love to undo that particular referendum, but I also understand the instability retrying big decisions would cause. Hungary joining the Euro has been on their cards since 2007.

4gotunameagain2• 1 year ago

It is clearly not in the benefit of Bulgaria to join a shared currency with advanced, manufacturing, positive export surplus countries like Germany.

Losing control of the currency will result in all domestic manufacturing to become more expensive (therefore incapable to compete with higher quality German goods), and all manufacturing capabilities will disappear in favour of the most cancerous form of industry, tourism. Like what happened to Greece and Portugal.

Mainan_Tagonist4• 1 year ago

Exactly, thank you for pointing this out. The Euro has hardly been the boon promised in many of the countries that have adopted it.

mhitza• 1 year ago

I'm not so familiar with Greece's and Portugal's issues when switching to the euro, but I have followed along the news with Croatia's switch to the euro. Where it was a prime excuse for the large chains (mainly supermarket chains) to round up prices during the conversion.

Symbiote• 1 year ago

Is there any trustworthy reporting on this?

All it takes is for one chain to round prices down (1-2¢ isn't going to be an issue for them), advertise this, and gain many new customers.

mslansn• 1 year ago

It also happened to Spain.

mns• 1 year ago

They are not losing any control because they never had any. The Bulgarian currency was tied to the DM and later to the Euro. The only thing that changes now is that instead of 2 Leva = 1 Euro, everything will just be Euro.

It’s also funny to see how anti everything related to EU/Europe most of the tech people are. You can see this here, like most of the comments that now proclaim the death of Bulgaria or Germany bailing them out, from people that have no clue on the background and history of this move.

bpizzi3• 1 year ago

Bulgaria has already pegged its currency (the lev) to the euro through a currency board since 1997. This means it already lacks independent monetary policy, and joining the euro wouldn’t significantly change that. The exchange rate is fixed, and inflation differentials are already impacting competitiveness.

Moreover, Bulgaria does not directly compete with Germany in the same product categories. Bulgaria is integrated into supply chains, often providing components or assembly work for German companies.

You are only 7M. I’ve got the feeling that it is just not large enough to significantly be distorted by eurozone monetary policy, at least in the way that might affect much larger economies.

charamis2• 1 year ago

I don't know why this comment got downvoted, what it says is true. Having experienced it as a greek first hand.

Mainan_Tagonist4• 1 year ago

Same perception here, none of what is said by GP should be downvoted. Almost 25 years after its implementation, it's high time the overall impact of the Euro was assessed objectively.

tashbarg2• 1 year ago

Because it is wrong. Lev is pegged since 1999.

And if you (or the first comment author) had read the article, then you would immediately have identified the problem with the comment.

tashbarg2• 1 year ago

Bulgaria is unusual in that it pegged its currency, the lev, to the euro right from the beginning of monetary union in 1999, even before it joined the European Union in 2007.

Apparently, they did not use that control in the last 26 years.

tsss2• 1 year ago

Great, another chronically bankrupt country that Germany has to stand bail for.

charamis2• 1 year ago

another country to keep euro artificially low for german exports to thrive (though they don't so much lately)

tsss2• 1 year ago

And who benefits from an undervalued currency? Certainly not the German populace.

slaw4• 1 year ago

Croatia had kuna pegged to Euro, replaced it with euro in 2023 and prices of almost everything went up. Why Bulgaria's government is working against it's people?

akmarinov7• 1 year ago

Prices also went up in Bulgaria without us adopting the euro…

slaw4• 1 year ago

Prices went up almost everywhere, but with euro adoption prices went up even higher.

eutraveler• 1 year ago

Thé bulgarian leva has a fixes rate against euro for years. To me prices will not change. But we will see.

yread• 1 year ago

Slovakia did it in a smart way. All kinds of laws that mandated showing prices in both currencies for a very long transitionary period, disallowing increasing the price when euro kicks in or with weeks of transitionary period end. It can be done with a functional parliament

slaw4• 1 year ago

Why Slovakia is so expensive?

Bulgaria to Adopt the Euro

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