European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday adopted the final legal acts for Bulgaria to join the euro area, confirming that the country will switch from the lev to the single currency on 1 January 2026. The decision, taken by the ECOFIN Council, makes Bulgaria the 21st member of the euro zone. The ministers fixed the irrevocable conversion rate at 1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian lev, maintaining the peg that has applied under the Exchange Rate Mechanism. Their approval follows an overwhelming endorsement by the European Parliament earlier in the day, which backed the accession by 531 votes to 69, with 79 abstentions, after the European Commission and the European Central Bank concluded that Sofia meets all convergence criteria. Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, has worked for years to curb inflation and stabilise its public finances. The Commission reported average consumer-price growth of 2.7 % in the 12 months to April, just within the threshold for euro entry. The country of roughly 6.4 million has also kept its budget deficit and debt well below EU limits despite a period of political turbulence that saw seven elections in three years. EU officials, including Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, say membership will lower borrowing costs, improve access to finance and remove foreign-exchange fees for businesses and citizens. Domestic opinion remains divided: surveys show close to half of Bulgarians fear the switch could stoke prices, and nationalist parties have staged protests against the changeover. Bulgaria will be the first state to join the euro since Croatia in 2023, leaving six EU members—Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Denmark—still outside the currency union. The Bulgarian government now accelerates technical preparations, with an information campaign and dual-pricing rules scheduled to start ahead of the 2026 deadline.