The European Council's decisions from July 8, 2025, marked the final approval for Bulgaria to adopt the euro as its official currency starting January 1, 2026. This outcome concludes a lengthy journey that began with Bulgaria ’s EU accession talks and moved through the country’s participation in the Exchange Rate Mechanism II and the banking union in 2020. The process culminated in June with a favorable assessment in the convergence reports by the European Commission and the European Central