Bulgaria’s newly elected government led by Prime Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov is abandoning its plan to request convergence reports from the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) by the end of January, and seek entry to the eurozone as of January 1, 2026, Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said on January 23.

Zhelyazkov has set two key priorities for his government – the adoption of the budget for 2025 and requesting a convergence report that would give a green light to euro adoption as of the start of next year.

However, Petkova said that, according to the government’s estimations, Bulgaria still does not meet the price stability criterion, as the latest Eurostat data shows inflation in the country is 0.1 of a percentage point higher than required. Bulgaria’s current average inflation is 2.6% versus 2.5% required to fulfil the price stability criterion.

Petkova said that the difference is small but is a fact and that once the country fulfils this criterion, she is obliged by the parliament to submit a request for convergence reports within fourteen days.

However, critics of the government suggested that the inflation was an excuse for the new ruling coalition comprising Gerb, the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), populist There Are Such People (ITN) and Democracy, Rights and Freedoms (DPS-DPS) to sabotage the country’s entry to the eurozone intentionally.

A day earlier, the ruling coalition and three of four opposition parties rejected changes to the central bank law that would require the central bank governor or deputy governor to resign from their post if they became a caretaker prime minister. However, the failure to adopt the changes could set back Bulgaria’s eurozone accession.

“The government wants us to postpone or not enter the euro area at all. The inflation data for December 2024 was clear when Temenuzhka Petkova said that we meet the conditions and at the end of January we shall ask for a convergence report. And the inflation data is the same now, but we give up the request for a report,” Martin Dimitrov of reformist pro-Western Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) commented on January 23.

He added that the chance of Bulgaria becoming member of the eurozone in January next year is realistic if sabotage by those in power ends. 

“Bulgaria practically fulfils the criterion of price stability, because there is a long-standing practice of the [European] Commission and the ECB, when one of the EU countries deviates from the inflation indicator, in this case Lithuania, to be removed from the list. And if there are diplomatic efforts, it will be taken out - this is what has been done in Croatia. Instead of holding consultations with the ECB and the EC and negotiating our entry, suddenly there was redundant data, quite contrived, about a deficit at the beginning of the year,” Dimitrov added.