Bulgaria joins euro area from 1 January

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/de/ip_25_3123

by yreg • 7 months ago

75 16 7 months ago

ec.europa.eu

lta2• 7 months ago

Welcome friends ! It's been a pleasure visiting you as (distant) neighbors and it's even better to have you as partners. That's one great piece of news to start the year on a good note !

ErroneousBosh2• 7 months ago

Congratulations Bulgaria! Maybe this time next year, the UK!

lta2• 7 months ago

Sadly unlikely to happen in the next future

ErroneousBosh2• 7 months ago

Well maybe just Scotland then. Out of the UK, into the EU, using the Euro, in Schengen, and the neighbours to the south can continue flying their little flags and painting their roundabouts if they like.

byyll2• 7 months ago

Did they agree? I've read at least one news article in the past 2 years talking about a referendum.

oliwarner• 7 months ago

When they joined 20 years ago.

byyll2• 7 months ago

They had a referendum for that?

fennecbutt2• 7 months ago

69%~ of Bulgarians disagree with gay marriage. Only 17%~ think gay marriage should be allowed in Europe in general.

In 2024 they passed your typical "gay propaganda" bill meaning that issues related to or affecting gay people cannot be discussed, even sexual health etc.

As a gay dude who never got being gay mentioned, or requisite sexual health advice when I was in school (in NZ) and took several hard years of not understanding what was wrong when I was trying to force myself to be hetero:

I don't think they deserve this. They don't deserve the financial boons and convenience of the Euro area. But then others will disagree of course; we're tribal - the gays are my tribe and might not be yours, but the difference between you and me I suppose is that I'd complain if they were known to have laws or persecute any particular group, not just my own tribes.

fabianmg2• 7 months ago

I totally agree with you, but is not just the progressive views on gay marriage on the EU that are at risk, is any progressive thinking. There's a wave of right wing backward thinking around the EU, and we keep adding more countries like Hungary.

fennecbutt2• 7 months ago

I was going to go into lots of detail but yes I agree, Hungary is also a disappointment in their social values and cozying up to Putin.

It's such a shame since I know so many awesome Hungarians, queer and not queer who are thoughtful people.

fabianmg2• 7 months ago

This doesn't make sense. We're admitting another Hungary in our club, and this is not going to end well. Any progressive vote is going to be blocked by those countries, and we're going to be paying money to them to vote our way as we are doing now with Hungary.

evan_a_a• 7 months ago

Bulgaria has been an EU member state since 2007. This is only about adoption of the euro.

sas41• 7 months ago

I'm seeing some negative sentiment here, that I feel like, needs to be cleared up. For some context, I'm 29, I haven't always lived here, but have been here for almost 20 years. I work in the software industry.

1. Bulgaria has been a member state since January 1st 2007. Many here feel like us being accepted into Schengen area took longer it should despite the clear benefits of our black sea ports.

2. The adoption of the Euro was a long planned thing, delayed to ensure the country can have a smooth transition, while there's a Russo-phile movement in the country, there was never a majority negative sentiment, it's believed to be Russian disinformation that made it look like that.

3. Bulgaria is not purely a leech in the EU, while it's a beneficiary of financial aid from various EU initiatives, that's offset heavily by the constant source cheap, highly skilled labor and education. Some common examples are/were Nurses and Doctors often go west to fill gaps in other member state, notably in UK before Brexit. Construction laborers working in Germany. And an incredible amount of software engineering being outsourced to here from all over the world, especially richer members states.

4. Bulgaria has a huge Queer community, and while it's true, the current government leaned more conservative in the bad sense, we did also protest them out of government. While the country is dealing with and healing from decades of past Russian influence, the youth are organizing Queer Bazaars and Palestinian Solidarity Charity Punk concerts, both, I can attest were very nice.

My advice is to not form your opinions purely by what news sources that reach you, because in the modern world, everyone has an agenda. Before talking about a country you have no personal, long term experience with, try to do basic research using the "country + keywords" query and dig deep. The news that seem to reach people these days seem to constantly confirm their biases, and having seen the comparison to Hungary, a country under possible dictatorship, vs. Bulgaria, a country that just protested it's Parliament out, feels very odd.

loky4i4• 7 months ago

big downside to adoption of euro is that retailers fictitiously increase prices, same happend in Croatia

nephihaha2• 7 months ago

And Ireland.

Bulgaria joins euro area from 1 January

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