Bulgaria and the euro

Bulgaria plans to adopt the euro and become the 21st member state of the eurozone on 1 January 2026. The Bulgarian lev has been in a currency board since 1997, with a fixed exchange rate initially against the Deutsche Mark and subsequently its replacement, the euro. Previously, Bulgaria's target date for introduction of the euro was 1 January 2025. However, the 2024 ECB convergence report concluded that Bulgaria did not meet the convergence criteria due to high inflation, so the timeline was deferred. The Bulgarian National Bank and several Bulgarian politicians had expressed their desire to join as soon as possible, and projected that inflation would be low enough by the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025. When Bulgaria adopts the euro, it will become the second national currency of the country after the lev, which was introduced over 140 years ago. The fixed exchange rate is 1.95583 lev for 1 euro.

The current target date for Bulgaria's adoption of the euro is 1 January 2026. In February 2025, the country officially requested that an off-cycle convergence report be prepared by the European Commission and the European Central Bank to assess the country's readiness.^[1][2]