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EU gives green light for Bulgaria to join euro

EU finance ministers have given the final green light for Bulgaria to adopt the euro on 1 January 2026.

EU ministers back Bulgaria's euro adoption from 2026

European Union finance ministers gave formal support today for Bulgaria to adopt the euro currency, paving the way for the country to become the 21st member of the euro zone from January 1, 2026.

Business • 20 Jun

ECB gives Bulgaria green light to adopt euro next year

Bulgaria has met all criteria to adopt the euro currency from 1 January 2026, the European Central Bank said after assessing progress on a host of indicators from inflation to central bank legislation.

Business • 04 Jun

Protesters set fire to the door of the EU mission building in Sofia

Protesters try to storm EU mission building in Bulgaria

Several thousand supporters of Bulgaria's ultra-nationalist Revival party scuffled with police while trying to storm the building of a European Union mission during a protest against the country's plans to adopt the euro next year.

World • 22 Feb

A view of the Bansko ski resort in Bulgaria, near where the accident happened

Irish man dies after accident near ski resort in Bulgaria

A 29-year-old Irish man has died following an accident near a ski resort in southwestern Bulgaria.

Ireland • 30 Jan

A woman celebrates the development at a checkpoint at the Giurgiu-Ruse border point between Romania and Bulgaria

Romania, Bulgaria join Schengen zone after 13-year wait

Romania and Bulgaria have become full members of the Schengen zone, expanding the borderless area to 29 members and ending a 13-year wait for the two eastern European countries.

Europe • 01 Jan

People watch the rising of a large Bulgarian flag during preparations ahead of the event

Cheers, jeers as Bulgaria unveils EU's largest flagpole

A soaring mast in the mountains of southern Bulgaria has made the EU's poorest country the home of the bloc's highest flagpole, filling some with pride and drawing scorn from others.

World • 18 Jul 23

Bulgaria last week scrapped its target to adopt the euro in January 2024 as it fails to meet the inflation criteria

Bulgaria could adopt the euro from 2025 if ready

Bulgaria could join the euro zone from January 2025 if it meets all entry criteria, the European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said today.

Business • 23 Feb 23

Some of the 34 people who were rescued remain in hospital

Six charged after 18 people suffocate in truck

Bulgarian prosecutors have indicted six people over the deaths of 18 Afghans who suffocated in a truck later left abandoned outside the capital Sofia.

World • 18 Feb 23

Police and emergency medical services on site after 18 people were found dead in an abandoned truck

Bulgaria finds 18 migrants suffocated in truck

Bulgarian authorities have found the bodies of 18 people who suffocated in a truck smuggling them through the country.

Bulgaria • 17 Feb 23

Bulgaria had aimed to join the euro zone from next year as it seeks more investment and credit security

Bulgaria gives up on January 2024 date for euro

Bulgaria is scrapping its target date of January 2024 for euro adoption as it fails to meet some criteria but will seek to join the common currency by 2025 or possibly earlier, Finance Minister Rossitsa Velkova said today.

Business • 17 Feb 23

EU members admitted Croatia to the control-free travel zone

Croatia joins Schengen, Romania and Bulgaria barred

Croatia got the green light today to join Europe's open travel zone, but Bulgaria and Romania were kept out because of opposition led by Austria over concerns about unauthorised immigration.

Europe • 08 Dec 22

Officials work at the site of the bus crash on a highway near the village of Bosnek, south of Sofia

46 killed in bus crash on Bulgaria highway

North Macedonia called for three days of national mourning after a tourist bus carrying its citizens caught fire and crashed in Bulgaria, killing 46 people in Europe's deadliest road crash in the past decade.

World • 23 Nov 21

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov casts his ballot at a polling station

Bulgaria PM loses quarter of seats in general election

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's party has lost around a quarter of its seats in parliament, leaving him with no clear path to hold on to power after yesterday's general election.

Europe • 05 Apr 21

Bulgaria held the election while battling a third wave of Covid infections

Bulgarian PM seeking fourth term in Covid-hit vote

The centre-right GERB party of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has come first in parliamentary elections with around 25% of the vote, according to partial exit polls published on Sunday evening after polls closed.

World • 04 Apr 21

Bulgaria, Croatia take vital step to joining euro

Bulgaria and Croatia have been accepted into ERM-2 mechanism, a mandatory stage for joining the euro and beginning the currency bloc's first expansion in half a decade, the European Central Bank has said.

Business • 13 Jul 20

More than 100,000 pigs have already been culled in the past two weeks

Fifth Bulgarian pig farm hit by African swine fever

Bulgarian authorities said that they would cull 17,000 pigs after detecting an outbreak of African swine fever at a breeding farm in the north of the country, the fifth industrial farm hit by the fast-spreading virus.

Europe • 31 Jul 19

Viktoria Marinova was found murdered in a park in her hometown of Ruse

Germany to extradite suspect in journalist's murder

German authorities have approved the extradition of the suspect in the rape and murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova, the prosecutor general of northern city of Celle said.

Europe • 12 Oct 18

Viktoria Marinova's body was found in a park near the Danube river

EU calls for swift inquiry into journalist's murder

Leading EU politicians and media activists urged Bulgaria to conduct a fast investigation into the murder of journalist Viktoria Marinova.

Europe • 08 Oct 18

The accident happened when the coach ran off the road and overturned near the town of Svoge (Pic: Google Maps)

At least 15 people killed as coach crashes in Bulgaria

At least 15 people were killed when a tourist coach crashed along a winding road in west Bulgaria today, the health ministry said.

World • 25 Aug 18

Researchers established the age of the fossils by dating the sedimentary rock in which they were found

Fossil find may challenge 'Out of Africa' view

Fossils from Greece and Bulgaria of an ape-like creature that lived 7.2 million years ago may fundamentally alter the understanding of human origins, casting doubt on the view that the evolutionary lineage that led to people arose in Africa.

Science • 22 May 17

Boiko Borisov, former Bulgarian prime minister and leader of centre-right GERB party, voting in Sofia earlier today

Exit poll: Bulgaria's pro-EU party GERB wins election

Bulgaria's centre-right GERB party won most votes in today's early parliamentary election with between 32.2% and 32.8% of the vote, exit polls showed.

Europe • 26 Mar 17

Angry migrants set car tyres on fire and threw stones at around 250 police officers

Migrants, police clash in refugee camp in Bulgaria

Around 1,500 people have rioted in Bulgaria's largest refugee camp, triggering clashes that left two dozen police injured and prompted the arrest of hundreds of protesters, officials said this morning.

News • 25 Nov 16

French student Mourad Hamyd, 20, was sent back to France from Bulgaria yesterday

Relative of Hebdo killer held over terror links

The brother-in-law of one of the jihadists who attacked French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last year faces terrorism charges for allegedly trying to join so-called Islamic State fighters in Syria, a judicial source said.

News • 28 Aug 16

Sudanese soldiers wave the national flag

Six kidnapped Bulgarians freed in Sudan

Six Bulgarian contractors for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) who were held for a week by Sudan rebels have been freed, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said.

News • 01 Feb 15