Bulgaria Becomes 21st Nation to Join the Euro

Following the nation’s accession to the eurozone, only six EU member states use their own currencies.

A giant Euro sign is pictured at the European Central Bank headquarters ahead of an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Single Supervisory Mechanism in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on Nov. 6, 2024. Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images

Bulgaria became the 21st member of the eurozone on Jan. 1, leaving only a handful of countries in the 27-member European Union yet to adopt the currency.

In the run-up to the change, price tags and bank accounts have shown both lev and euro currencies, at the fixed rate of 51 euro cents to the outgoing currency.

Bank accounts will automatically be converted.

People will still be able to pay in levs for about a month following the switch, but they will begin to receive any change in euros. Old notes and coins are expected to be out of the economy in a matter of weeks.

Until June 30, levs can be exchanged for no fee at banks, post offices, and the Bulgarian National Bank, and they can be exchanged indefinitely at the central bank.

“Tomorrow, Bulgaria joins the euro area,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a New Year’s Eve post on X.

“This milestone reflects years of hard work and commitment. Now it means simpler payments, easier travel and so many new opportunities for Bulgarian businesses.”

“Congratulations, Bulgaria!” she said in the post in Bulgarian. “You can be proud of what you achieved.”

The last country to join the eurozone was Croatia, which abandoned the kuna in 2023 in favor of the European currency.

The Council of the European Union formally approved the accession of Bulgaria to the euro area following a meeting in Brussels in July.

At the meeting, finance ministers from member states determined to set the Bulgarian lev conversion rate at 1.96 per euro.

Following Bulgaria’s accession to the eurozone, only six of the 27 EU countries—Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Denmark—will continue using their own currencies.

None of them has immediate plans to join the eurozone, either for political reasons or because they do not meet the required conditions.

Eventually adopting the single currency has been a condition of joining the EU since 1993. The euro itself went into circulation as a digital currency in 1999 and became physical cash in 2002.

Bulgaria had hoped to join the single currency sooner, but Brussels viewed its inflation rate as too high.

Member states that want to join the single currency must demonstrate that their economy has converged with those of other eurozone countries and that their finances are under control.

Conditions for ascension include holding inflation to no more than 1.5 percentage points higher than the rate of the three best-performing EU countries.

When Brussels first supported Bulgaria’s joining the euro in June, it said the country’s average inflation over the 12 months before April 2025 was 2.7 percent, just below the required level.

However, since then, it rebounded to a level of 3.7 percent in November.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said in a Nov. 4 speech addressing Bulgaria’s ascension that in earlier euro changeovers, nations experienced some rise in inflation but that that swiftly diminished.

“In earlier euro changeovers, the impact was between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points,” Lagarde said. “Even in Croatia—which joined the euro area at a time when inflation was already high—the changeover effect was about 0.4 percentage points, and it quickly faded.”

“Public perceptions show a repeating sequence,” she said. “Before adoption, uncertainty is natural. But once households and firms begin using the new currency in their daily lives—and see that a credible central bank is safeguarding price stability—confidence grows.”

The move by Bulgaria follows the nation formally joining the EU’s Schengen Area on Jan. 1, 2025, 18 years after it joined the bloc on New Year’s Day 2007.

However, ditching the lev has not been an uncontroversial decision in the country, with 49 percent of Bulgarians saying that they were against adopting the euro and just 42 percent saying that they were in favor, according to a Eurobarometer poll published in December 2025, The Sofia Globe reported.

The move also comes at a politically uncertain time for the Eastern European nation, with its deeply unpopular government resigning on Dec. 11 after weeks of street protests against state corruption and a new budget that would have increased taxes.

Bulgaria has held seven elections in the past four years.

Reuters contributed to this report.