At the official ceremony, three documents were signed that will be accepted into the eurozone from January 1, 2026. Exactly at 13:32 Bulgarian time, the European Parliament said "yes" to our accession to the eurozone. The vote took place in Strasbourg. A simple majority of MEPs was required for approval. 531 of them voted "yes", 69 - "against", 79 abstained. Less than an hour after the vote in Strasbourg, the finance ministers of the 27 EU member states also said the historic and now final "yes" in Brussels. The decision was taken unanimously.
From January 1, 2026, Bulgaria will introduce the euro as its official currency. The official exchange rate is 1.95583 leva per 1 euro. From 8 August 2025, all prices in the retail network will be announced in both euros and levs, and this will continue throughout 2026. The period of simultaneous use of both currencies will be 1 month - from 1 January to the end of January 2026. Merchants will return change only in euros. All bank accounts in levs will be automatically converted to euros at the official rate and without any fees or commissions. Only euro banknotes can be withdrawn from ATMs.
