site.btaGovernment Is Ready for Euro Adoption from Start of 2026 - Finance Minister

The government said Thursday that it is ready for the adoption of the euro at the beginning of next year. "We will work toward this together with society as a whole, because it will only bring benefits to Bulgaria," Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova told journalists.

At the Ministry of Finance, she presented key findings from national representative surveys and a qualitative study on public and business attitudes titled “Bulgaria’s Accession to the Eurozone.”

"Bulgaria meets all the criteria for membership in the eurozone, and we expect the EU Council to make a decision on accession on July 8," Petkova said. “We hope the process will proceed successfully and will dispel people’s concerns.”

“The attitudes of Bulgarian society are very clear — it is undeniable that, in the long term, the majority of the public firmly recognizes the benefits of adopting the euro. However, it’s also clear that society needs more information about the adoption process, and the government is working on that,” the minister added.

“Let it be clear that not a single Bulgarian lev will be lost, and the Bulgarian National Bank will exchange every lev into euro at the set rate with no time limit,” Petkova emphasized.

Over 100 events will be held across the country by the end of the year, including meetings with businesses and citizens to inform them about the euro adoption process, she added.

Boryana Dimitrova, managing director of the Alpha Research agency, presented the results of two nationally representative polls conducted in April and May this year, related to Bulgaria’s integration into the EU.

In the May survey, 46.5% of citizens said they approve of adopting the euro, while 46.8% said they do not.

Asked whether Bulgaria should continue its EU integration, 56.3% of respondents gave a negative answer, while 29.6% supported continued integration, Dimitrova noted.

In contrast, 66.3% of business representatives said they support the euro, with only 33.6% opposing it, according to Dimitrova.