site.btaOctober 29, 2007: Bulgarian Version of Single European Currency's Name, Evro, Finally Adopted for EU Documents

Since the euro’s inception in 1992 and its adoption across Europe, the currency's name has been spelt in various ways. According to official regulation, in official documents, the name “euro” must be used in the nominative singular in all languages, although different alphabets are taken into account, and plural forms are accepted. In documents other than EU legal texts, including national legislation, alternative spellings are permitted according to the grammatical rules of the respective language. The spelling of the words for the currency is prescribed for each language in European Union legislation. 

In the period preceding Bulgaria's accession to the EU in January 2007, a dispute emerged concerning the spelling of the currency that the country would adopt in the years to come. Following Bulgaria's accession to the bloc, the Cyrillic alphabet was designated as one of the official languages of the Union, necessitating the issuance of a new series of banknotes to reflect this development. Initially, the European Central Bank and the European Commission insisted that Bulgaria use the spelling of the currency from "ЕУРО", as was spelled in Greek, the only other non-Latin alphabet recognized in the EU. This was claimed to be necessary in order to ensure an official and standardized spelling across the EU. However, Bulgaria stated that it wished to take into account the Cyrillic alphabet and the principle of phonetic orthography in the Bulgarian language. The issue was resolved in Bulgaria's favour at the 2007 EU Summit in Lisbon, thereby enabling the country to utilize the Cyrillic spelling «евро» (which can be phonetically rendered in the Latin script as "evro") on all official EU documents. Since December 13, 2007, all EU institutions, including the ECB, have utilized "ЕВРО" as the official Bulgarian transliteration of the single European currency. 

Below is an original English-language news item of BTA's External Service of October 29, 2007, covering the naming dispute:

Brussels, October 29 (BTA Correspondent Atanas Matev) -

Etymological Bulgarian Spelling of Common Currency Finally Agreed

It has been conclusively agreed that the common European currency will enter the Bulgarian version of all EU documentation as "EBPO" (as spelt in the Cyrillic alphabet, pronounced "evro") as per the country's wishes. The EU's Legal Service has developed and disseminated an explicit document to this effect to all EU institutions, a source close to proceedings told BTA.

Bulgaria's first step in achieving its aim was the ratification of a special declaration supporting the country's position by the EU's General Affairs & External Relations Council on October 15 in Luxembourg. This was followed by its ratification on October 18 by state and government heads in Lisbon.

The now etymologically correct spelling will be written into the EU reform treaty to be signed by all Member States in Lisbon on December 13 and will have to be applied to and even backdated in all EU documents. The corrections will go into the Bulgarian versions of the entire acquis communautaire and of all matters currently under discussion.

This finally resolves the long-contested issue, which arose due to the European Central Bank's insistence on a uniform pronunciation and therefore spelling of the word Euro in all languages and alphabets, irrespective of linguistic tradition. However, the issue has only been officially resolved for Cyrillic, and it remains to be seen whether any other countries follow Bulgaria's example for the right to spell the currency according to their own linguistic rules.