Balkan country Bulgaria has become the latest member of euro area, officially joining at midnigt on New Year’s Day, twenty years after its accession to the European Union. The Bulgarian Lev, the national currency in use since 1881, will be gradually replaced by euro over the next month.
With Bulgaria’s accession, the number of countries using the euro as their official currency has risen to 21.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, described the transion to the euro as the final step in Bulgaria’s full integraiyon into the European Union.
To mark occasion, European Central Bank building in Frankfurt was illuminated with Bulgarian flag.