Bulgaria officially received. The 21st Euroland State will be in January

On Friday, the Ministers of Finance of EU countries agreed to Bulgaria's accession to the euro area on January 1, 2026. At the beginning of next year, Bulgaria will become the 21st EU Member State in Euroland.

To introduce the euro, the state must meet the so -called convergence criteria. Member States decide whether a given country may adopt a common currency on the basis of the European Commission's assessment. The EC positively assessed Bulgaria's efforts on June 4.

The issue of Bulgaria's entry into the euro area will be discussed by the leaders of the Member States at the summit next week in Brussels.

The finalization of the legal process of introducing Bulgaria into the euro area will end with the adoption of three legal acts by member states; They are to be adopted in July. This will allow Bulgaria to introduce the euro into circulation on January 1, 2026.

In addition to Bulgaria, there are six EU countries outside the euro area: Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Denmark.

The EC will watch Bulgaria

EU economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis announced that the European Commission would monitor prices after Bulgaria's accession to the euro area to prevent their growth. On Friday, the finance ministers of EU countries agreed to this country to the euro area from January 1, 2026.

Dombrovskis referred to the fears of increasing prices after the introduction of the euro. He emphasized that it is a matter that requires monitoring, because some companies use the very change of currency as an excuse to raise prices.

He added that with previous transfers to Euroland (in 2023 Croatia joined the euro area) the impact of currency change on inflation was very limited and hesitated in the range from 0.1 to 0.3 percent.

“It is more than balanced in the average period, thanks to lower interest rates, lower currency exchange costs, greater price transparency,” he said.

According to Dombrovskis, price monitoring should be started well in advance and continued after the introduction of the common currency. He noted that you can also point to companies that use the very change of euro as an excuse to raise prices.

It also helps – as he said – “double display of prices before and after changing so that citizens get used to prices in euros.” He added that it also pays to work with the business community over the fair change of currency so that companies do not use the entry into Euroland as an excuse to increase prices.

Poland is not thinking about the euro yet

Minister of Finance Andrzej Domański, who presided over the meeting of his counterparts on Friday in Luxembourg, in an interview with journalists announced that Poland did not work on joining the euro area. In his opinion, this is an optimal state.

The condition for entering the euro area is the fulfillment of four criteria (called convergrance). It is about: price stability (low inflation), stable public finances (budget deficit below 3 percent of GDP and public debt below 60 percent of GDP), stability of the exchange rate (participation in the so -called ERM II mechanism, the so -called euro zone waiting rooms, for at least two years without serious exchange rate disorders) and the convergence of long -term percentage (average The long -term interest rate can be higher with a maximum of 2 percentage points from the average interest rates in three EU countries with the lowest inflation).

On July 10, 2020, Bulgaria joined the ERM II mechanism, which is called the “eurozone waiting room”. Since then, the Bulgarian left course has been associated with the euro.

From Luxembourg Magdalena Cedro (PAP)

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