site.btaECB President Lagarde: It Is Highly Likely Bulgaria Will Become 21st Eurozone Member, but European Council Has to Decide

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde held a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday to explain the ECB's latest interest-rate cut decision. Lagarde also welcomed the euro zone's soon-to-be-newest member Bulgaria to the fold. According to the convergence report of the European Central Bank published Wednesday Bulgaria is ready to join on January 1, 2026.

Responding to a BTA question, Lagarde said: “First of all, I would like to congratulate Bulgaria, the Bulgarian people, and welcome them. This is not yet the completed decision-making process because as you know, while the Commission and us have validated under the convergence report that the criteria are met, the European Council still has to approve. So, I don’t want to pre-judge what the European Council will decide, but there is the very strong likelihood that Bulgaria will become our 21st member around the table. And we are delighted that the circle gets larger. And we will be looking forward to the Bulgarian contributions, both in terms of intellectual input, economic analysis, monitory policy determination. And as soon as the decision is final with the European Council, as you probably know, we will welcome at several meetings before January 1 the Bulgarian representative (Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev) at the table of the Governing Council in order to facilitate and do the onboarding properly and so that we can also get to know the new colleague. I also hope that the Bulgarian people will value the solidity of the euro area, the solidity of the currency that we have. Some of you have probably noticed that the supportive judgement of the Europeans has gone up and is now at 83%, so we have 83% of the Europeans based on the survey (of Eurobarometer) that is on a regular basis, 83% actually value and appreciate the euro as their currency. So, I hope we can together do everything we can so that Bulgarians can also appreciate the value and the shield impact that the euro constitutes for new members.”