Bulgaria to convert to euro as of 2026
With a positive convergence report, the EU Commission gave the green light on Wednesday for Bulgaria to join the Eurozone. There have been repeated protests against the long-standing plan in the country recently, fuelled by President Rumen Radev's call for a referendum on the issue. Overall, the media take a positive view of the move, although there are also those who voice certain doubts.
Farewell to the Kremlin inner circle
Club Z allays the concerns of people who have protested against the introduction of the euro in recent weeks:
“Bulgaria will not lose its monetary sovereignty. It has not had it since it was forced to introduce the currency board [pegging the Lev to the German mark] on 1 July 1997. ... Bulgaria will not become insolvent, as Greece did, because it is one of the countries with the most stable public finances in the EU. ... With the euro, Bulgaria moves into the A-group of European politics. Goodbye Kremlin, goodbye 'bridge' between East and West. With the euro, Europe will finally cease to be foreign. With the euro, we will become Europe.”
No real counter-arguments
The efforts of the pro-Russian president have come to nothing, Deutsche Welle is pleased to report:
“One of the main goals was probably to dampen the joy over the completion of one of the country's key strategic tasks. ... And Radev and Co. succeeded to a certain extent. The good thing about Radev's campaign was that it mobilised the supporters of the euro and managed to spark a serious debate. ... In this discussion it became clear that there are no arguments against the euro, just vague fears of dangers that are not directly linked to the Eurozone, such as prices going up, which can occur with or without the euro.”
Sceptics deserve more respect
Trud criticises the government's stance vis-à-vis opponents of the euro:
“During the campaign, people who are against the euro were treated with contempt. They were told that they had no clue what they were talking about and no right to speak. Their demand for a referendum on the conversion was rejected in parliament with ridicule and scorn. ... Why couldn't the prime minister show these people some respect and say: 'Yes, we hear and understand your concerns'? ... Why couldn't the currency's negative aspects be acknowledged, instead of denied? The argument for the euro as a whole becomes stronger when the downsides are also taken into account.”
Czech Republic has missed the boat
Bulgaria's conversion to the euro prompts Hospodářské noviny to look anxiously at the situation in the Czech Republic:
“If someone had said twenty years ago that Bulgaria would join the Eurozone before the Czech Republic, everyone would have thought they'd gone mad. Back then the Czech Republic was celebrating its EU accession. ... The original plan was to join the Eurozone in 2009, then in 2015, then in 2019. Then there was silence. ...The Czech Republic looks like a country that has missed the boat. The Czechs don't like the EU or the euro, but the bottom line is that they shouldn't like the representatives of their own economic policy, who all too often lead them towards a dead end.”
Diminished appeal
Not everyone is convinced that the single currency is the best option, economic editorialist Dominique Seux points out in Les Echos:
“It is well known that several countries don't want to get on board the euro ship: Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Hungary. More than eight out of ten Europeans (83%) are in favour of the euro as a technical, practical and stabilising instrument. That is no small thing. However, its appeal is still not universal. Growth in the Eurozone is modest, to say the least, (0.8 percent in 2024 and 1 percent this year, according to the OECD). In short, the single currency has unfortunately failed to fulfil its promised role as a centripetal force bringing economies closer together.”