The Bulgarian currency has been pegged to the Deutsche Mark for more than twenty years now. This means that we’ve pretty much been using the euro since its inception, and any opposition is just a populist manoeuvring
While it's true that a pegged currency is like using the euro with respect to current purchasing power, that definitely isn't all that matters and it isn't the most important consideration either.
Here is something more important - having your own currency and its associated banking infrastructure serves as an insurance against applying financial pressure to the country, such as stuffing non-repayable loans down the country's throat and then gorging on indefinite loan extensions with high interest rates and amounts - a strategy used so many times but mentioned so very rarely.
Case in point - Greece, that happened to them right after they went all in on the euro and killed their drachma.
It might be that Bulgaria has been tied up to the conveyor belt already and there is no way out of the slaughter house, I don't know the case enough to judge, but in principle, the EU would work much better as a customs union, politicizing it has proven to be a dirty affair.
Putin Putin aside for now, he's irrelevant anyway.
The loans weren't given for investments. Besides, if the Greeks had the drachma they wouldn't be given these loans in the first place.
But you started a very interesting topic - who is more at fault in the case of under-performing loans - the lender, the borrower, or is it 50-50?
Greek's borrowing binge was a drug shot in the arm, when they woke up, they found their shipbuilding industry gone... to the new EU members like Poland who sold cheaper and without tariffs within the EU. The Euro made Greek's recovery impossible.
Unintended consequences or something else? Another interesting topic that applies to many cases besides Greece.
Here is something more important - having your own currency and its associated banking infrastructure serves as an insurance against applying financial pressure to the country, such as stuffing non-repayable loans down the country's throat and then gorging on indefinite loan extensions with high interest rates and amounts - a strategy used so many times but mentioned so very rarely.
Case in point - Greece, that happened to them right after they went all in on the euro and killed their drachma.
It might be that Bulgaria has been tied up to the conveyor belt already and there is no way out of the slaughter house, I don't know the case enough to judge, but in principle, the EU would work much better as a customs union, politicizing it has proven to be a dirty affair.
Putin Putin aside for now, he's irrelevant anyway.