Bulgaria Gets Green Light to Join Eurozone in 2026

January will see the Balkans nation become the first country to join the single currency since 2023, when Croatia abandoned the kuna in favor of the euro.

The European Central Bank (ECB) presents the new 50 euro note at the bank's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, on July 5, 2016. Ralph Orlowski/Reuters

The European Union gave Bulgaria the green light to join the eurozone at the start of next year.

The Council of the European Union formally approved the accession of Bulgaria to the euro area on Jan. 1, 2026, following a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Tuesday.

At the meeting, finance ministers from member states determined to set the Bulgarian lev conversion rate at 1.955 per euro.

“From today, Bulgaria takes its place as the 21st member of the eurozone,” said Stephanie Lose, the Danish minister for economic affairs.

Denmark currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

“This marks the culmination of a thorough process towards Bulgaria’s accession, comprising rigorous analysis and intensive preparation. I warmly congratulate Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people on this tremendous achievement,” Lose added.

The European Parliament also voted to approve a report recommending the move, by a margin of 531 in favor to 69 against. There were 79 abstentions.

Bulgarian MEP Eva Maydell said after the vote that it marked a “key milestone towards Bulgaria’s full European integration—for the country and its citizens.”

“The Bulgarians deserved this achievement,” she later added in a post on Facebook.

“From those who were on the square in 1989 and peacefully toppled the communist regime, to those who suffered during the 1997 currency crisis, to those young people for whom Europe is their home today.

“With the adoption of the single European currency, the European dream of generations of Bulgarians is fully realized.”

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

After Bulgaria accedes to the eurozone, only six of the 27 EU countries—Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Denmark—will continue using their currencies.

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

Sofia 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 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 gave its backing for Bulgaria to join the euro in June, it said the country’s average inflation over the 12 months up to April 2025 was 2.7 percent, just below the required level.

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

Ditching the lev, however, has not been an uncontroversial decision in the country, with 53 percent of Bulgarians saying they were against adopting the euro, according to a Eurobarometer poll published in June.

Over the weekend, thousands of protesters gathered in a central square in the capital, Sofia, to protest the plans to adopt the euro and demand a referendum.

The protesters said that after the rally, they intended to set up a tent camp on the central square, dubbed “Town of the Lev.”

On a platform for speakers hung a huge banner reading: “The battle for the Bulgarian lev is the last battle for Bulgaria.”

The leader of the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane (Revival) party Kostadin Kostadinov told the protesters: “Someone else will decide how we spend our money, the Bulgarian budget will be approved by the European Central Bank.”

“This is an anti-state coup, this is treason,” he added.