Brussels Issues Unofficial Warning: Euro Adoption May Be Halted if Referendum Proceeds

Brussels has unofficially warned Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova that the country’s euro adoption process could be suspended, according to BGNES, citing Nova TV.

The warning follows President Rumen Radev’s formal proposal for a national referendum on whether Bulgaria should adopt the euro starting in 2026.

Yesterday, the GERB-SDS coalition urged that the referendum proposal not be allowed to proceed to a vote—neither in parliamentary committees nor in the plenary session. They called on the Speaker of Parliament to return the proposal directly to the president, declaring it inadmissible. Their concern is that if the motion is rejected in Parliament and later referred to the Constitutional Court, it could cause significant delays in the euro adoption timeline.

Unofficial sources from Brussels indicate that such delays may prompt the European institutions to suspend Bulgaria’s accession process to the eurozone.