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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

#251

Post by lifestyleguru »

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…

You are overcomplicating this. Poland is nepotist kleptocracy, EU and NATO membership away from Belarus. They should adopt euro since yesterday, it's strategic goal in line with membership in EU and NATO.

Switzerland can have their own currency, where inflation over 2% is a scandal. Sweden can have their own currency, they produce their own cruisers, submarines, fighter jets, and artillery. Poland kicked out their last baby boom into emigration and now have the same demographic and immigration crisis as geriatric Italy and Germany. They have nuclear power plant company operating with its board receiving executive salaries for fifteen years now and... no nuclear power plants. Accumulated inflation since pre Covid era is 43% and doesn't look to be stopping. Own currency enables enormous fraud and creates class of oligarchs.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#252

Post by xdennis »

wiseowise wrote: post #209
epolanski wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By many metrics (life expectancy, inequality, literacy, poverty rates) the US is a third world country.

You must be American. Only Americans hate their country that much.

So true. The weirdest part is that so many non-Americans think the same about America whilst simultaneously lining up to legally or illegally immigrate there.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#253

Post by ako »

ingohelpinger wrote: post #78
ako wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for USD and other major currencies, as most countries have inflation around 2%. Only currency that has done significantly better is the swiss frank.

if you think inflation rate is at 2% you must be living under a rock

On average over the last 25 years according to perplexity. (for example, found an old message about price of bread in 2000: 1.99 dutch guilders. You can now get a bread for 2 euros. That translates to 3.21%) I think a lot of people are overestimating inflation percentages over longer periods of time.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#254

Post by giingyui »

consp wrote: post #192
Svip wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[dead]

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#255

Post by xdennis »

mrtksn wrote: post #86
throwpoaster wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you were Armenian.

Not at all, Armenians were also an integral part of the Ottoman society and that’s how you still have plenty of Armenian cultural heritage dating back to Ottoman times in modern Turkey. You must be referring to the events around WW1 that led the loss of huge numbers of the Armenians through atrocities committed by the Ottomans which some say that it was a genocide, others say it was poorly managed suppression of a re…

> Still unresolved issue unfortunately.

The Armenian genocide is very much a resolved issue. No serious historian denies the genocide any more than he denies the holocaust.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#256

Post by giingyui »

guappa wrote: post #131
Roark66 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/ecb-to-print-1-trillio...

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#257

Post by perching_aix »

menaerus wrote: post #240
wiseowise wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an EU taxpayer. Caps stay bolted on. > To paraphrase this differently: if I as an investor gave you 100M EUR and 24 months, would you be happy to spend it for changing a frigging cap on the bottle or would you rather invest that money and time+people resources on something else? Grifter 101 – “ think about what we’d be able to achieve if you did X instead of Y, comrade!”.

It's fine with me if you think that the bottle caps were a worthy move, ok? We are different in the fact that I prefer to discuss objectively with arguments and not using the collective bias as you seem to impose on me without actually knowing anything about me. My mind is open for discussion but probably not suitable for the likes who cannot think out of the box. As for the grifter, I don't think you really understa…

I guess this is my fault, sorry everyone.

Let me clarify here, cause the editing window for my comment upstream from this has already passed:

> People are upset because it shows Brussels disfunction in a nutshell.

This is what I was reacting to when I said that in my experience people who bring up Brussels like this "are rightwing grifters".

It wasn't in the sense that I was pointing at the person above or anyone else in particular here with this label, but rather, that I was taking an issue with the claim that this kind of thinking (Brussels this, Brussels that) is a people at large thing ("people are upset because"), rather than just something prevalent in those aforementioned circles.

This does sort of imply that I think the person above my comments belongs to those circles, but that really doesn't need to be true, nor was that really my intention to suggest necessarily. I guess this is as good of a lesson for me as any why engaging in labeling (particularly negative one) can be detrimental to discourse, regardless of context. Apologies.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#258

Post by anal_reactor »

dingaling wrote: post #239
anal_reactor wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Imagine a world where the entire European continent is a single political entity - we'd be unquestionable superpower Why would that be a good thing?

That's a bigger philosophical question, but I assume that in the context of this discussion "being a rich and powerful society is good for you" can be taken as an axiom.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#259

Post by 16th_hop »

What everyone is missing: the biggest advantage of the Euro is debt. Once you can take loans out in Euro, investors can give you lower rates since they’re not worried about a national bank going haywire and debasing the local currency. Also no potentially illiquid currency markets that need to be cleared going in and out of the currency.

Ask a homeowner the difference between a 2% loan (euro price) and 5% (local currency) and you’ll understand why so many countries have opted for the Euro.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#260

Post by mytailorisrich »

yard2010 wrote: post #230
mytailorisrich wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Success, yes it has survived. But it has cost a lot to people and countries.

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

For most people the benefit is no currency exchange on holiday.

Cost is loss of key economic levers, price increases, and potentially less competitive exports.

I don't think a blanket statement like yours holds. Ot works for Germany (unsurprisingly) but some countries suffered.

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