Bulgaria Likely to Get Approval to Adopt Euro in 2026

The European Commission is likely to give Bulgaria approval to adopt the Euro in 2026 which would make Bulgaria the 21st country to adopt the currency. 

347 million Europeans in 20 countries use the Euro. If Bulgaria joins that adds another 6.7/6.8 million people to the default "user base". Then the Euro will support just over 350 million people.

There are conditions for euro-candidate countries in terms of consumer inflation (relative to the three best EU performers, in April France was the lowest inflation country at 0.9%), constraints over budget deficit as % of GDP, as well as a maximum of 60% debt relative to GDP. 

Stability of the exchange rate is also a factor. 

The technical criteria is staying within a 15% either side of a central parity rate in the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II).