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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

#311

Post by lifestyleguru »

OldfieldFund wrote: post #310
lifestyleguru wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 la…

Well, Switzerland is not even in the EU, so it's comparing apples and oranges.

Switzerland is not in the EU but is in e.g. Schengen Area (which seems to be disintegrating right now). They are in a luxurious position to cherrypick whatever they want.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#312

Post by Sammi »

nwellnhof wrote: post #214
Sammi wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The EU Parliament is not democratically elected because votes from member states have a different weight. The election is free but not fair. It's also one of the few parliaments that can't propose laws on their own but can only veto laws proposed by the EU Commission. The powerful EU Commission being appointed by governments (and again only approved by the Parliament) is a form of executive federalism. This makes the…

Small states are usually given more weight in parliament. This is commonly considered more democratic.

The commission is elected by the parliament. This is democratic.

Would it be an improvement if parliament could propose laws and commission members. Maybe. But saying that this makes the EU undemocratic is unreasonable.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#313

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

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…

Poland will not adopt it in foreseeable future because it makes no sense: the Polish currency (zloty) acts as a kind of bumper in difficult times. It's very simple: something bad happens like a crisis or a war, investors immediately sell assets deemed as risky (such as zloty), zloty goes down by x%, and automatically Polish products and services become more attractive by x%. This all happens by itself. So for the Polish economy it's a no brainer.

For people themselves, they're not so keen either as they know well adopting euro was abused in other countries to increase prices (and not just round them up a bit). So basically nobody wants it, even if there are a few real benefits of joining, such as potentially lower mortgage rates which are among the highest in the EU).

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#314

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

owebmaster wrote: post #284
pradn wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be careful to make a distinction being in the EU and using the Euro as your currency. You can benefit from the EU common market, with its uniform rules/standards, easy capital flows, subsidies, and industrial policy. All without using the Euro as your currency, and being subject to the monetary policy of the ECB. Being in the EU without using the Euro has been pretty good for Poland.

> Being in the EU without using the Euro has been pretty good for Poland. That's an interesting perspective. From what I see in the news, the EU isn't as happy with the outcome.

They are free to be. When joining the EU, Poland accepted to join the monetary union at some point, but there is no date set, so in theory it can be infinite. And with its current strategy to drastically modernize and increase its military force, there is no doubt it will not met the financial criteria anytime soon so nobody is worried about that.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#317

Post by ethbr1 »

Urahandystar wrote: post #298
owebmaster wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being in the EU without using the Euro has been pretty good for Poland. That's an interesting perspective. From what I see in the news, the EU isn't as happy with the outcome.

Probably because the success undermines using the Euro.

Debatable. The original comment was good, because it specifically noted the advantages of using a sovereign currency in certain situations.

Once Poland becomes more prosperous and its growth rate slows, it would make sense for it to move to the euro. It just doesn't now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_...

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#319

Post by Sammi »

_w1tm wrote: post #273
raxxorraxor wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To you it may be democratic enough. Not for me and the parliament lacks legislative initiative which in reality means the commission steers the ship. It is more of a bureaucratic technocracy with democratic fig leaves. People often attribute competence to technocracies, but that is an illusion. Also I don't believe you can move up government function to layers above your national government and still call it represen…

> In reality the culture and circumstances of parliament members is too far removed from the voters. I also cannot know the other representatives, so my voting decision will always be restricted to a shallow popularity contest. But as explained, this doesn't matter, because the elected representatives cannot implement any agenda. That’s an odd thing to say when there is a real chance of the commission failing a confi…

Seriously the commission works at the mercy of the parliament, not the other way around.

Re: Bulgaria to join euro area on 1 January 2026

#320

Post by tmcdos »

ingohelpinger wrote: post #159
petre wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but it's still agri products sold for pennies. Compare that to motor vehicles, car parts, furniture and sanitary hardware that Poland exports. Also, I never ate Shopska salad made with Dutch tomatoes in Bulgaria, even in restaurants outside of Sofia. I can tell the difference, they almost always served the good ripe stuff that has taste, not the watery green variety or the huge Greek tomatoes with air gaps insid…

for penni's, because they are dumping the prices by importing crap, so the local producer cant sell his product on the domestic market.

Quite true!
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