Bulgaria and the euro

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, becoming the 21st member state of the eurozone. When Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 it committed to join the eurozone and replace its currency, the lev, with the euro. In February 2025, the country officially requested off-cycle assessments of their convergence by the European Commission and ECB to determine the country's readiness. The 2025 convergence reports published on 4 June 2025 concluded that Bulgaria met the convergence criteria. On 8 July 2025, the European Parliament endorsed Bulgaria's entry in the eurozone and the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted the final three legislative acts required for the admission.

The lev was first established by the Bulgarian National Bank in 1880. Under a currency board introduced in 1997, the lev was first pegged to the Deutsche Mark (1,000 BGL = 1 DEM). With the lev's 1999 redenomination and the arrival of the euro, the exchange rate was updated to its long-standing fixed peg of 1.95583 BGN = 1 EUR. Between 10 July 2020 and 31 December 2025, the lev remained within the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II), exiting the mechanism to transition into the euro on 1 January 2026. On that day, the euro became the official currency of Bulgaria; however, during the cash changeover period (1–31 January 2026), the lev and the euro circulated in parallel for cash payments. As of 1 February 2026, the euro is now the sole legal currency in Bulgaria, ending 146 years of Bulgarian Lev usage.