Benchmark

Wealth Chasm Is Toughest Obstacle for Latest Euro Hopeful

Bulgaria ticks all the EU’s boxes to eventually swap the lev for the common currency, but its status as the bloc's poorest nation could hold it back

An employee counts fifty and twenty euro notes at the cash desk inside a Mercator Poslovni Sistem d.d. supermarket in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. In January Mercator reported its first full-year loss in fifteen years as the largest supermarket chain's sales in the Balkans last year suffered during the recession.Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Radoslav Tomek and Elizabeth Konstantinova

June 15, 2017 at 4:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The latest country eyeing a switch to the euro has a cast-iron case for joining the currency club. Well, almost.

Bulgaria wants to enter the ERM-2 exchange-rate mechanism, the precursor to adopting the euro, and ticks all of the European Union’s boxes to eventually swap the lev for the common currency. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov even won influential support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron during a lobbying tour of Europe this month.