On 8 July, the Council of the European Union adopted the final legal acts paving the way for Bulgaria to join the euro area on 1 January 2026. This decision follows Bulgaria’s successful fulfilment of all economic and legal convergence criteria set out in the Maastricht Treaty.
With this decision, Bulgaria is set to become the 21st member of the eurozone. The Bulgarian lev will be replaced at a fixed conversion rate of 1.95583 lev per EUR 1. This rate correspondences to the current central rate, which has remained unchanged for over a decade.
The transition to the euro was already anticipated by national legislation adopted nearly a year ago. On 7 August 2024, the National Assembly passed the Law on the Introduction of the Euro in the Republic of Bulgaria, which provides the legal framework for the currency changeover. The law includes provisions on tax settlement rules, specifying the declaration and payment currency.
