Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

Being able to buy groceries with euros is not a strong, or even related, argument to the point you're making. Even ignoring the real economic cost of having two currencies, there is no serious economist that would argue Poland joining the EUR zone is negative for Poland (as opposed to for stronger EU economies). Every single historic metric points in the other direction. Poland's economy is maturing and strengthening and median household income is slowly reaching parity with neighbouring countries so this particular argument may only hold for maybe another decade but until then it's a bit misguided. Also, not for nothing but the Polish economy is mostly doing as well as it does because of the metric ton of EU subsidies injected into it the past decades. Poland is one of the largest net receivers of EU money since 2004 so arguing it or its single currency was somehow a net negative to Poland is, and by extension an odd argument to make for someone benefiting from the above as a Polish citizen.

Slovak here living in Czechia. Adopting euro would give you a seat at the ECB granting influence over monetary policy in the whole Eurozone. You'd also get cheaper money (think mortgage rates going from ~7% (current rates in Poland) to less than 4% (current rates in Slovakia)). Do you have to exchange money when traveling abroad? Now imagine buying/selling stuff abroad as a company and multiply that by a lot. You get the picture. For countries that deal mostly with Eurozone based countries (which are most countries in Europe) you get massive savings that'll make the country more attractive to outside investors. Any potential price increase would be dwarfed by the rise in wages. All of this happened in Slovakia (and would be great to happen in Czechia if not for previous eurosceptic governments that massaged public opinion heavily). Sadly, the successive corrupt governments of Robert Fico ate many of the benefits to ordinary folks and Russian propaganda machine left some people questioning the value of euro and EU membership. But even 15+ years after adopting € the approval rating in Slovakia is very strong. All of this would be much worse without the euro. Personally, I'm all for everything that gets Europe closer to federalization and strengthens it.

> The biggest issue is giving up one of the biggest instrument of control over the economy to a supra-national non-democratic organisation

This is the point. Germany managed to set up a really independent central bank (which is a non- democratic, bureaucratic, etc… thingy) and inflation was at the target for decades. Italy, France, etc… didn’t, and inflation was 2-3 point above target and above the German levels. So they joined the Euro, which has a governance very similar to the Deutsche Mark.

To this day, inflation in European countries outside the Eurozone is higher.

Thank you for your interesting comment.

> In time things get more expensive much faster in countries that grow faster while incomes stay the same. This is a huge negative and this is on top of price increases happening on "day 1" due to rounding up during conversion.

Could you perhaps expand on this effect, ideally in a mechanistic manner, or point me towards a source that explains the influencing factors and outcomes? I am trying to understand the different processes at hand.

But you have a much higher growth rate than Germany, why in the world would you like for Poland to match Germany‘s miserable growth rate

The tradeoff between monetary sovereignty and eurozone stability is real, especially for economies still catching up. That said, there's also a risk in staying out too long. You still get a lot of the downsides (imported inflation, capital flow pressures) but none of the influence. It's a weird halfway state...

I agree, It think Spain adopted the Euro too soon and we'd have weathered the GFC better if we still had control of our monetary policy at the time. And we didn't grow as much as we could have in the preceding boom phase.

Doesn't really matter because being in EU you can't print money, being euros or whatever local currency you have.

Schengen is incredibly useful, especially if you have to transit through several countries. It's also true that the decrease in cash usage has reduced the benefit of the euro.

However, the benefits of a single currency go beyond cash. It's also about understanding prices. You see a sign for coffee and it's 1199 Hungarian Forint -- or it's 14.99 Polish złoty. It's not clear at all what those numbers mean. Sure it's possible to pull out a currency calculator app to see what the rate is today and what it means in euros. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it is bigger than a mere inconvenience. It's constant friction on not really understanding what's going on. If those coffee prices were instead 2.99 € vs 3.53 €, you would immediately see that the Polish coffee is 20% more expensive.

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As for the payment terminals offering to pay in Euro, as others have already noted, that's a scam. There is a hidden fee, usually around 3.5% - 5.0% of your total, that you get charged for this "convenience". Refusing this and paying in the listed currency will mean that your own bank will do the conversion, which is basically always going to be far cheaper.

Unfortunately this currency conversion scam is so lucrative that even big brands engage in it. Amazon for example asks what currency your card is in. If you select some currency other than what this sepecific Amazon's listed prices are in, well, you're in for another juicy hidden fee, this time to Amazon.

It's usually better to pay in the local currency than Euro. The currency still has to be exchanged somewhere, and the banks usually have better rates than the terminal operators.

Payment terminals can offer whatever currency exchanges they want, but usually it's just a way to fleece you on the spread, nobody is doing you any favors, it's just that whoever in the chain gets to perform the exchange gets to set the fees and the spread and most people get confused by currency exchange so it's in every middle man of the chain's interest to be the one to perform it and get the spread themselves.

Yeah never use that offer to pay euros its just scam. Get some travel card like Wise you will save a lot of money and get better feel for the prices.

It’s the 21st century, I pay for everything by card, currency barriers are way below Schengen and language barriers

I live in Sweden at the border of Finland and there's very little issues with crossing the border and paying in another currency.

Was it any easier when Finland was using the markka?

All EU countries are required to join the euro. This was agreed in the 1992 Maastricht treaty when the EU was founded (and the EMU, which was the starting point of the euro). Only Denmark and the UK negotiated an opt-out at the time.

Only problem is that there are no deadlines and it's up to the country to make a plan for adopting the euro.

I think you meant this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_eurozone

I'm not an expert but this is the best value for the cost if you ask me.

Technically, 2 EU countries: Greece and Cyprus.

Bulgaria economy and the average citizen quality of life are not that correlated. You can have one improving while the other is deteriorating. We saw what happened in the US when such a gap became wide enough.

Bulgaria has an internal coherence problem. There are brilliant people but also many who believe bullshit communist fairytales.

1. Many people have unrealistic expectations. In reality, no one is coming to save you, and 99% of the time, you need to save yourself.

2. The Russian propaganda story was taught in schools from 1945 to 1990 and beyond. When I was in elementary school in the 90s, it was still taught by inertia. I would bet it's still taught today, 2025 (!), in some shape or form. Yes, Russian actions in the late 1800s had the side-effect of liberating Bulgaria, but by all historical accounts, that was bound to happen since the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

The most significant action taken by Russia (the Soviet Union) was the occupation of Bulgaria following World War II. The resulting communist regime initially jailed or killed any person who dared speak against it. This is not commonly taught or talked about in the country, even today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Court_(Bulgaria)

Credentials: I am Bulgarian.

It’s also more of a generation thing though. The older people are nostalgic about the past and their youth and for a country that experienced 2 decades of very low birth rates that’s the 70s and 80s and those years are under the communist rule and very good years for Bulgaria as the country was experiencing economic boom from computers and electronics manufacturing.

Also, under under the Communist rule supported by USSR, they indoctrinated people into a version of history that Turks are the absolute evil, and Russians are the absolute angels saving them from the ottomans.

I.e. in pre-EU era it was called Ottoman slavery, later they start calling it Ottoman era as it was more accurate as Ottoman’s system was based on collecting taxes and resources from the conquered places when giving them plenty of autonomy. Obviously not ideal but far from slavery.

And if the people vote against the EU in the referendums, one's authorities just kinda look the other way.

For anyone who is new to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_French_European_Constitut...

Also the experience of Greece not too far back and the austerity imposed by Germany is not quite forgotten. Varoufakis[1] can attest to its severity. The Greeks voted against it but Germany imposed its will.

[1]https://jacobin.com/2025/07/yanis-varoufakis-on-the-legacy-o...

Like the UK? I have. It just cost me 2 grand to fix the damage to my car from the pothole.

No, but have you seen the roads in other places? Roads are hard :)

Depends on where you’re at in Montenegro. Parts of it are definitely still different (the capital, Ulcinj and the south, rural areas) but some of the coastal cities are becoming very generic global luxury stores and mass tourism.

At least - that was my experience spending a couple months there 2-3 years ago.

The US has a much more integrated economy - businesses operate nationwide, employees routinely move across the country, and most economic policy is set centrally. And even then there are still downsides where e.g. interest rates set to suit the national economy exacerbate the problems of the rust belt.

Yes, and it isn't exactly helping all of America, even if it is helping America as a whole

Maybe the word recession was not accurate. Also Germany is a highly developed country, so it's expected to have minimal growth. Greece should be compared to other developing economies in Europe (mostly pre-communist states), and that comparison is eye-popping...

The real economy, the one that affects people's lives, is still something like 25% below what was pre-2009. In essence people are still 25% poorer than they were before 2009. That's the worst recession EVER recorded in recent history. Worse than the 1930s.

That's why Greece is only slightly above Bulgaria (yet) in real purchasing power compared to other EU countries.

Don't get me wrong. There were a lot of benefits for most of the EU countries, but the lack of common economic strategy, and regulation prooved catastrophic for some.

Maybe so, but we are both speculating on this. However the truth of what happened with the Euro is devastating.

Also the IMF was also part of the Greek debt restructuring deal, so it wasn't that different from what Brazil or other countries have experienced.

I am not against the Euro, far from it. But the EU could have handled this crisis much better for the benefit of both Greece and itself. The Greek economy wouldn't have collapsed, and the anti-Euro sentiment which led to the rise of ultra-right-wing parties in EU wouldn't grow that much.

Croatia hasn't really adjusted. Well, maybe it could be said that everybody adjusted one social class downwards. So people who were previously "upper middle class" are now solidly "middle class," people who were "middle class" are now "lower class," etc. The purchasing power of the populace has declined and not yet recovered.

So, after introducing the euro, and everything overnight becomes ~2x more expensive, salaries will match that trajectory and eventually also become ~2x larger, almost universally no matter the job type? Did I get your argument right? I ask because I don't think this actually has been the case with pretty much any EU country.

From what I have seen, salaries will certainly adjust themselves, and they will grow, but the resulting purchasing power is going to remain lower than it has been prior to introducing the euro.

...and trees start bearing sweets.

You have to back such claims with data. Also consider what happens in the said adjustment lag and how long it lasts.

I mean, I feel I have to point out that Eurosceptics have now been predicting the imminent death of the EU and its predecessors for over half a century at this stage. "It's doomed" is not the most compelling argument.