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Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

ecb.europa.eu

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Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#191

Post by petesergeant »

chithanh wrote: post #137
druskacik wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Newspapers even advise travelers against terminals who try to trick paying in Euro instead of local currency. This is a rip-off.

I’ve even had my credit card provider message me to warn me before after putting a couple of transactions through! Hardly an unbiased source, but their rates are much much better

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#192

Post by consp »

Svip wrote: post #170
Thlom wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denmark have pegged the krone to the euro. They haven't adopted it, but tied themselves to the Euro. They still maintain control of their currency, but most of that control is used to maintain the value to the euro.

That's because the powers that be want the euro, but the people didn't. They were asked in 1992, 1993 and 2000; and effectively they said no to the euro every time (yes, I know; in 1993, the euro was specifically opted out, but the fact that it was approved when the year before a referendum with the euro was rejected suggests – at least partially – that it was a rejection of the euro (among other things)). Denmark th…

This all reads as symbolic nationalist policies with an added burocracy thus costing more than it should. "We need own coin to control [insert nationalist thing here]" but in practice you won't and never did.

The last time I was in Denmark my bank nicely charged me for the conversion despite the coin being fixed to the euro. It is just a money costing machine which adds no value.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#193

Post by Sammi »

raxxorraxor wrote: post #173
PunchTornado wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

who is non-democratic and why?

The EU institution because of pragmatic and systematic properties. Ultimately to say something is democratic or not is a subjective opinion, but EU proponents have made the mistake to brush such criticism away. Since then the EU is mostly developing in a wrong direction.

Who is not democratically elected?

The EU Parliament is directly elected. The EU Council is comprised of EU country head of states, which are all directly elected. The EU Council and EU Parliament then elect the EU Comission.

Sounds democratic to me.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#194

Post by saubeidl »

ReptileMan wrote: post #134
perching_aix wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but those are the same people that made the plastic caps permanently attached to the bottles It's still hilarious to me how upset people are at this (or at least pretend to be).

It is inconvenience for all, with at best minimal benefits, but it makes couple of bureaucrats and greens feel good about themselves. People are upset because it shows Brussels disfunction in a nutshell.

It's a huge convenience. I used to always misplace bottle caps and spend some time looking for them. Now I don't.

I don't get why people don't like it.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#195

Post by dmos62 »

mc32 wrote: post #53
dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is nonsense. Not mentioned is that Greece has borrowed excessively and had defaulted on its loans. A bailout was organized by the EU and IMF with terms that Greece had every opportunity to reject. No one forced anything on Greece. The referendum was not binding and political theater for the government of the time. That Greece accepted the terms reflected the reality that the alternative was much worse and would…

What choice did Greece have? Germany was not extending favorable terms, they were punitive, so what choice did they have but take the least awful choice? Syriza tried but Germany had the upper hand and of course didn't give an inch --though Syriza tried very hard. Varoufakis would argue the severe terms imposed by the creditors/negotiators exacerbated the fiscal issue. Yes Greece had issues but the creditors's terms…

Greece underreported its debt until 2009: i.e. it borrowed too much while lying about how much it's already borrowed. That's the main difference between Greece on the one hand and Italy, Portugal on the other, in my eyes. Italy and Portugal too suffered a public debt crises, but they weren't so blatant about it. I sympathize with the common Greek man, and I wish their crises had been managed with more success, but I also don't feel especially interested in bankrolling Greek policies that led to this crises.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#196

Post by debesyla »

menaerus wrote: post #180
epolanski wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes there's an inflation shock at the beginning, then salaries and everything adjusts.

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…

Have you looked into Lithuania? (I don't know about other countries, only live in this one.)

Thought maybe I understood the discussion wrong, because Lithuania does have a minimum wage that is government mandated.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#197

Post by ChocolateGod »

marton78 wrote: post #102
Maxion wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder why this comment is at the top of the HN post. Over the years I've seen a lot of missinformation on this topic that follows pretty much this exact train of thought. Why would countries join the EU and the Euro if it didn't benefit them? The baltics have all grown massively since the 90s when they became independent, and even though they all were on nice trajectories they still all decided to join the EU and…

> Why would countries join the EU and the Euro if it didn't benefit them? Joining benefits the country's elites, rather than its general populace -- and it's these elites who decide whether to join. Bulgaria joining will weaken the Euro, which benefits big, export-oriented economies such as Germany and France. This is how the Euro has always worked: the big economies dilute their trade surpluses at the cost of smalle…

all the elites like the expats in Spain.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#198

Post by blub »

perching_aix wrote: post #161
ReptileMan wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is inconvenience for all, with at best minimal benefits, but it makes couple of bureaucrats and greens feel good about themselves. People are upset because it shows Brussels disfunction in a nutshell.

But it really isn't that inconvenient at all, and some of the caps are outright better now than the crap that preceded them. Bit like how the toilet water use regulations turned out. I even find myself vaguely annoyed now whenever I drink from glass bottles, that those caps are loose. > People are upset because it shows Brussels disfunction Reminds me to that meme where the debated point is what OS is better, and the…

I didn’t know this was an EU regulation, but if it is, it’s utterly dumb.

The new lids are harder for kids to use, bother you when drinking, get in the way when pouring and are a general nuisance.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#199

Post by anal_reactor »

Roark66 wrote: post #108
decimalenough wrote: post #22

Credit where credit is due: the EU gets a lot of flack for being bureaucratic, hidebound, sclerotic, whatever, but the single currency has been a success and it's still expanding, 26 years after its creation. Also, the addition of Bulgaria means it's almost possible to travel from Spain to Greece entirely through the Eurozone, with only a thin sliver of Serbia or Macedonia in the way. (Assuming we include Montenegro…

Polish here, very much against adopting the euro until our standard of living and growth rate matches Germany (no at least not for next 10 years). Why? Because the disadvantages far out weight the benefits for developing countries. The biggest issue is giving up one of the biggest instrument of control over the economy to a supra-national non-democratic organisation. Surely the monetary policy will follow what is bes…

Another Polish here: truth is, whether we have a single currency or not doesn't matter as much as people think it does. For most people, it's about symbolism, not about practical economic consequences. I guarantee you that average person has no clue what it really means for the economy to adopt euro. BTW the argument "let's wait for our economy to catch up with Germany" is just deceitful because there will always be differences between economies. Imagine arguing that Nebraska shouldn't be using the dollar until its economy catches up with California... which is going to happen "not in my lifetime".

I am strongly pro-euro. Why? Because again, economic consequences are way smaller than most people think, and it's about symbolism. It's about slowly marching towards European Federation instead of NIMBYism that prevents EU from actually living up to its full potential. Imagine a world where the entire European continent is a single political entity - we'd be unquestionable superpower. But no, because "muh independence", and the end result is that we can't do shit on the international stage because we're too busy arguing with each other.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#200

Post by riffraff »

jochem9 wrote: post #75
crossroadsguy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always felt it was a mistake allowing countries inside the EU but not the currency. But when one looks at the dates - and they are 6 years apart - it becomes clear why. I wonder how it would have turned out had Euro and EU been launched together. Would it have been "a package" or optional?

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.

Are you sure it's in Maastricht? I think the automatic requirements met -> has to join were added in the Lisbon treaty, Maastricht just established the requirements but didn't force joining, which is why some older eu countries which would meet them haven't joined yet.
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