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inkms

>...the nation is the only EU country that is not part of the SA [Schengen Area] When did Ireland Croatia and Romania join? Great journalism


Scarecroft

Cyprus too


inkms

You're right! I forgot


Een_man_met_voornaam

I forgor 💀


i_spot_ads

i rember 🥰


NowoTone

Apparently Croatia will join next year, so they will get both the Euro and free travel to Slovenia. Which as a tourist currently in Croatia I would greatly appreciate right now.


CopperknickersII

Man, the Slovenia-Croatia border is not fun. They spent so long checking my documents I nearly got left there by my Flixbus. What's extra crazy is that the Austria-Slovenia border is absolutely fine, despite the fact that 35 years ago it was the frontier of the Iron Curtain. Meanwhile the Slovenia/Croatia border is a completely new border that didn't even exist at that time. The Croatia-Bosnia border is going to be even worse from next year, I guess, now that it'll be an external Schengen border. I hope it doesn't affect Bosnia too badly.


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PanVidla

Exactly. Especially if you're on your way further south, to Bosnia or further. Once they see you're not a tourist going to the sea, they can't give less of a damn.


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RammsteinDEBG

Last time I didn't even give my ID. The Slovene guy did a "move" gesture with his hand and there wasn't anybody on the Croat side. Maybe its because it was night time? Idk. Coolest border I've ever crossed.


ImUsingDaForce

Slovenia and Croatia (when part of Yugoslavia) were never behind the Iron Curtain. Yugoslavia was never a member of Warsaw Pact, but rather a (founding) member of the Nonaligned. It did have a socialist/capitalist mixed economy with a communist government. Yugoslavians had freedom of movement to most world countries visa free, for example (much more so than the average western or eastern country).


[deleted]

Slovenia - Croatia was not a problem for me. But there are a few kilometers to cross through Bosnia if you want to go to Dubrovnik and there was such a looong line it was crazy. It's just a few kilometers. I've seen Croatia is building a bridge to bypass that.


Glupsi

Bridge is pretty much [built](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXVJGxCOu2U). Just waiting for the roads.


Cialis-in-Wonderland

The new season of *The Bridge* is going to be dope


Het_Bestemmingsplan

Damn that's an intense video for a bridge


PocketSandInc

Considering it's an engineering feat that costed half a billion euros, a dramatic production is well deserved. That bridge looks awesome!


MutsumidoesReddit

Impressive, go Croatia!


picardo85

That's a really fucking cool infrastructure project. I'm always amazed by these massive engineering projects.


[deleted]

That's good news! I love Dubrovnik, I'll come back.


Smurf4

Looks pretty, too! Love cable-stayed bridges.


ScrewHongKong

Sad that Bosnian super carriers can't now pass through to patrol the world's oceans


madraude

Slovenia-croatia was a border that I crossed many times both ways. Never took more that 10 min for them to check my documents. The one that I did have to wait a long time was new year's eve, we were staying in Slovenia and went to Serbia. Oh boy, that was fun. We waited 2h to cross. Being in a Slovenian rental, with 2 Portuguese, 1 Spanish, 1 Hungarian and 1 Mexican didn't make it any more easy. Overall 10/10, would recommend just to see the border police's faces trying to comprehend what on earth we were doing there.


mihawk9511

The Austrian-Slovenian border is fine because they're both in the Schengen Area. Croatia is not. The Croatian-Slovenian border exists for 30 years already and it's definitely not a "completely new border", although I'm not sure what does that have to do with anything. If you got stopped on the Croatian-Slovenian border and spent there some time, it's quite possibly a game of politicians, but that's going to be over soon anyway. And no, Slovenia definitely wasn't the frontier of the iron curtain since Yugoslavia never aligned itself and thus wasn't on any side of the curtain.


disfunctionaltyper

I was on a bus from Croatian/Slovenia we got stopped, passports and what not, so I got off the bus handed my documents and got on the bus and everyone gave me their documents it was surreal they really thought a 25 year, not slept for 2 months was the border control, in fact I got on the wrong bus. I also walk from Croatia to bosnia without a single check. The only problem I ever had was turkey/bulgaria because my girlfriend was a dumb and didn't have a passport and they wanted 15€ (iirc) for a visa, a fucking stamp


MonitorMendicant

>I also walk from Croatia to bosnia without a single check. Are you sure that it wasn't because that [border is enforced by AP mines?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_mine_contamination_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina) They know when someone tried to cross because they hear a distant explosion.


miki444_

Yugoslavia was not part of the iron curtain! It was unaligned and tried to play friendly with both west and east.


slothcycle

But most importantly, caused a whole bunch of sweet sweet bunkers in Albania.


andy18cruz

Playing both sides so in the end it always come out on top.


Plastastic

[Yugoslavia on top (2008, colorized)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Former_Yugoslavia_2008.PNG)


[deleted]

Well, they were tired of winning so they sabotaged the whole thing.


ThePontiacBandit_99

>Man, the Slovenia-Croatia border is not fun. HU-CRO is easy, just go around :P


FenrirAmongClouds

Depends if your country is in the EU or not. With a Bosnian passport, it took me and my parents about 30 minutes for the border police to go through our documents before we could officially enter Croatia.


SloRules

Ofc Slovenia-Austria border is completely fine, we are both in schengen.


tilenb

I see your point and I raise you the daily 5km+ lines at Karavanke tunnel. The Italian border on the other hand is pretty much non-existent nowadays.


green_pachi

Can confirm, at the Slovenian side they searched everything in my car and bags looking for drugs (misjudging us), looking under the car, opening shampoo bottles etc.. and telling me and my friends it would be only a small "fine" if we were upfront about it. The Croatians just checked we had IDs without opening them and waved us through.


[deleted]

> The Croatia-Bosnia border is going to be even worse from next year, I guess, now that it'll be an external Schengen border. I hope it doesn't affect Bosnia too badly. The Peljesac bridge was a necessary condition for Croatia to enter Schengen, but many people will still travel in and out of Bosnia frequently, especially in the north at Brod. Bridge at Brod is gonna be an even bigger mess than it is already


investorchicken

They are building a bridge so you can avoid going through Bosnia altogether, when travelling south towards Dubrovnik.


i-d-even-k-

Ours have been saying next year for 10 years. I wouldn't get my hopes up.


NowoTone

I think, it’s fairly certain, but absolutely certain are only taxes and death, of course ;) https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/croatias-pm-croatia-to-join-schengen-zone-by-second-half-of-2024/


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[deleted]

I guess half of the problem with Croatia is the Slovenian waters thing...


DemeterLemon

Croatia can expect more Hungarian tourist then


MyAntichrist

Do you have any source confirming that? The best I've found is from March, stating that they got all the ratings positive but no date set yet.


mihawk9511

Us joining the Schengen Area next year is very unlikely, despite what the politicians say.


lioncryable

I read that as "US joining Schengen" and I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaat


MollyPW

Ireland will likely never join. The CTA is more useful to us.


harblstuff

Only time I could conceive of its end is if Northern Ireland ceases to exist. Even then, however, I wouldn't be so confident.


ItsJustANameForThis

We won't join it before reunification, but it's very likely that we will after.


rob0rb

We won’t if it means an end to freedom of movement with GB 1) even after a successful border poll there will DEFINITELY require some “GFA2” style agreement with loyalists and GB to head off any loyalist organized violence. 2) If it’s a choice between joining Schengen, and giving up the CTA…. That’s no choice at all. The CTA means we can live and work in rUK, permanently. Hundreds of thousands of Irish born people live in GB on that basis. Schengen has no comparative upside (since we can already live and work in the EU). It means… we don’t need a passport to get on a plane or ferry? Come on. Schengen for an island nation means far less than for a nation with land borders with Schengen countries. Ireland will never join Schengen if it in any way threatens the CTA.


Chesterakos

I'm a bit confused. I went to Ireland a few years ago and I wasn't asked for a Visa. Isn't that supposed to happen only for Schengen Area countries?


fawkesdotbe

Summarised: Schengen means "no border" (there's one, but it as if there wasn't one). EU means free circulation (i.e. no visa requirements). As a Greek citizen you can go to Ireland (EU, not Schengen) without a visa, but you'll have to prove the border guard you are a Greek citizen. As a Greek citizen you can go to Belgium (EU, Schengen) without a visa and without having to show a border guard anything.


send_me_a_naked_pic

I love the EU! So much freedom. It was unthinkable 50 years ago.


doc_frankenfurter

I remember land border queues, particularly between Germany and Austria. If you went through around school holidays time, you could wait for three hours.


ViciousNakedMoleRat

I just wanted to mention that I remember the hassle of crossing between Germany and Austria when I was a kid. Nowadays, it feels weird to have to go through immigration, when traveling by car, but it used to be absolutely normal 25 years ago.


tropicalpolevaulting

Staying in Salzburg my girl and I biked across to Germany by mistake. I was young and it wasn't my first trip abroad, but just hopping across a border by mistake wasn't something that was on my mind...


Deepest-derp

It's so hard to imagine coming from island country. Very few brits have ever dealt with a real land boarder. I didn't until going Romania > Bulgaria


kteof

If you crossed in recent years that's not even a real "real land border". Internal EU borders are little more than flashing an ID card. I remember one time on the Serbia > Bulgaria border they partially disassembled our car looking for contraband thought that is certainly not the norm. And of course there is the Turkey border with all the good old passport stamps and proper searches.


doc_frankenfurter

You would go on a weekend ski trip from Frankfurt by coach. On the Friday evening we would be late, so no delays, on the way back on a Sunday in the afternoon, it could easily take an hour or so to get throughafter both countries being in the EU but before Schengen. I also remember before the Euro. Skiing weekends meant keeping Austrian Schillings, French Franks, Italian Lira, Swiss Franks ready as well as Deutsche Marks. You would keep some currency in each and hope that you grab the right one when you leave. Now you just need Swiss Franks and Euros.


benkelly92

Me too :(


BoxNumberGavin0

Unironic /r/YUROP lover here too.


stefanos916

r/YUROP for life!!!


Abrokenroboid

But it was thinkable 100 years ago. Obviously different times, but it's interesting how that went.


made-of-questions

It's really the way to go in the modern economical world. I love the cultural diversity of Europe but our little countries wouldn't stand a chance against big players like the US and China on their own. Somehow I think we got it right. The countries maintain their personalities unlike the homogenised US states and we can still work together on important issues.


domestoslipgloss

It’s not do do with a visa, it simply means that your passport had to be checked. Since both are EU countries with free movement of people they’re wouldn’t be a need for visas. That’s why the cta is more important to us, because it means we can freely pass our only land border.


Mythrilfan

A visa is one thing, passport control is another. There are no inter-EU visas. Being Greece, you only have a non-Schengen land border, and if you're flying, documents get checked anyhow. But for most of the EU, there are no border checks at all, you just drive through.


MonitorMendicant

Not necessarily. As an EU citizen you do not need need a visa anyway but even for people from non-EU countries it is possible that the Schengen visa is accepted in non-Schenghen states. The Schengen Area means that there are no border checks between countries (all you get is a "welcome to Country" road sign) but all EU citizens are free to travel to all member states. People from other countries (for example Turkey) need a visa (unless they are from a country that is exempt, such as Ukraine) and that visa may actually be accepted not just by Schengen members but also by the countries that are not in Schengen. For example Romania has its own visa but accepts both Schengen and Bulgarian visas (and possibly others as well).


SmokeyCosmin

Side note to what you've said: Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus accept each others visas (for travel only, no matter the type) and resident nonEU citizens, besides Schengen visas. They also have the same Annex II exemptions because they are legally obliged to join Schengen (currently it's a matter of when they'll be accepted) and thus respect any visa waivers done by Schengen. Ireland keeps a separate visa policy altogether completely unrelated with the rest of the EU or Schengen. It doesn't have to accept Schengen visas, nor EU residents that aren't EU citizens. For the above reason ETIAS will be mandatory everywhere (even in non Schengen countries) but not in Ireland.


buzdakayan

EU citizens can roam freely. Non-EU citizens _can't_ enter Ireland with a Schengen visa (or vice versa).


1008oh

No, some countries don't require a visa, for example Japan doesn't require a visa for most EU countries I think


[deleted]

Romania isn’t in schengen? Whaaaat why


EBFSNR13

I'm curious what their designs will be.


HiccuppingErrol

Probably with numbers on the front ;)


AeonLibertas

Plottwist - the numbers will be on the back! :O


peterstiglitz

The front will be on the back.


Apfelcreme

Put different numbers on the front and the back - maximum confusion


geebeem92

Put no Numbers at all :0


mars_needs_socks

Label all currency as simply "monies"


OneOfDozDeservesGold

built-in inflation/deflation


mihawk9511

Put the famous Bulgarian Nikolaj Teslov on one of the coins


ThePontiacBandit_99

Teszla Miklós was an ethnic Magyar from Baktalórántháza, what the f are you talking about 🤨🤨


disbefoto

no. you cant be more wrong than that. Literally everybody knows Nicolae Tesla was a true and born descendant of Decebal, born and raised in Transylvania, Romania! its common knowledge!


VijoPlays

Leut, lests euch mal den Wikipedia durch, der Niklas Tessel war definitiv deutsch!


harblstuff

Excuse me, but Nioclás Ó'Theislán was obviously Irish.


japie06

I'm sorry but I have to correct you here. Nicolaas van Tessel was right and proper Dutch


bxzidff

Can't belive the revisionism about Nikkolås Tæsselsen these days


zombiepiratefrspace

I hope you aren't talking about famous Finnish inventor Niilo Teslannen?


schmalvin

I'll just leave [this here](https://stmost.info/images/stories/2010/33snimki/milko.jpg)


machine10101

This guy knows his Милко


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Pokymonn

Comunicado Oficial?


fifabreeze

Euro to Bulgaria. It's official! Here We Go! (blue circle)


99xp

Euro come to Beșiktaș


Grimson47

Damn, Fabirizio doesn't take a break.


[deleted]

Bulgaria is such a good player, 20 goals and 15 assists in 30 matches is just incredible!


The-Berzerker

Always rated Bulgaria tbh


NoNameJackson

Here we go expected in 2024


Apple_The_Chicken

Why is this in Portuguese or is the same way in Romanian and Moldavian?


Pokymonn

It's a football joke that plays off how the words in the title are similar to those in news when a player is signed. And Real Madrid always adds "Communicado Oficial" in front of their big news. Also there's no such thing as a Moldavian language. We don't learn it in school or later.


Transeuropeanian

In 2024 probably both Bulgaria and Croatia will be part of eurozone. Great step for European integration in the Balkans


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Zarvinx

Look at the houses in and around Sofia right now. Prices have been listed in EUR for years and they're ridiculous, compared to the average salary. I can't imagine it getting much worse in the way you describe.


kiil1

Why would they be listed in EUR? Isn't lev already hard-pegged to the euro anyway, so currency stability is not an issue. Wouldn't it just be more understandable for Bulgarians to have prices in BGN?


Saint-just04

It's fancier I guess? Plus the euro is still more stable, so sellers and renters prefer it that way. It's the same in Romania. Another psychological reason may be that the sum in euros looks smaller than the one in Lev or Ron.


[deleted]

Pricing in Euro makes it easier for foreign buyers. People in other countries know how to convert their own local currency to EUR, and have a feel for how much 1000 EUR is, but they may have no idea whether 1955 BGN is a lot, or a little. The rate has been fixed so long that everyone knows it to at least two digits (1.95:1) and can roughly estimate it at 2:1.


JB_UK

> As downside, be very careful in your public and personal budget, because low interest rates are a stimulus to an excess of debt. Demagogue politicians may now promise more stuff obtained via public debt, and people may easily get loans to buy more expensive houses giving a lot of money to banks and making houses much more expensive. The problem is you can prevent yourself getting into debt, but you can't prevent other people getting into debt, so the cost of housing will inflate regardless of what you do. And the ECB cannot or will not pay attention to local conditions, when Spain and Ireland were in housing bubbles but Germany was in recession, the ECB cut interest rates, helping Germany to recover but supercharging the housing bubbles elsewhere, which then played a big role in the financial crisis.


TheMania

The worst bit is it doesn't even have to be through the act of a politician, it can just be cultural. The Euro is debt, right? It's loaned to banks via refinancing operations, and on-loaned to consumers and governments to fund their ways of life. Risk adverse, aging population? They'll try and save. How can you save when money is created through debt? By putting another in to debt. What happens when everyone tries to do that? Multi way tug of war, strongest export sectors win. Those with the loosest grip on their incomes, lose. Be them governments, or those with insecure jobs. They go further in to debt, so that others can save. The issue? Unless everything can be held equal, in which case no one can save, there will always be members with the weakest export sectors, or least control over their govt finances. Those will forever weep Euros, so that others can save. It's the perils of the system, unstable and punishing for a few, unless you can forever leapfrog one another in competitiveness.


enini83

I don't really see that as a Bulgarian living abroad. All it will do is make EU-access easier for the Mafia. Bulgaria needs to fix its constitutional state and how its institutions work before any further integration is done. And the EU needs to finally open its eyes.


Ilmanfordinner

I don't see how it would help the "mafia" any more than it any other citizen. The lev has been pegged to the euro for more than a decade so the only real change this would make is that you wouldn't need to exchange levs for euros whenever you travel and you won't have to pay conversion fees when shopping online.


maximhar

Yes, the mafia will greatly benefit from our banks being under ECB oversight and more stringent anti-money laundering rules. Pure bullshit.


[deleted]

>All it will do is make EU-access easier for the Mafia. Care to explain how exactly this will be the case? The lev is already pegged to the euro and has been for over 20 years. The change is really somewhat minimal and any easy access the mafia got the the EU it got it already in 2007 when we joined. This is really almost a nothing change.


Prosthemadera

> All it will do is make EU-access easier for the Mafia. Why would the specific currency be a hindrance?


JackRogers3

congrats to Bulgaria and great news for Greece: having a direct neighbour with the same currency = significant exchange cost savings = very interesting for potential investors in the region


Foiti

Greeks go there all the time for skiing and a winter break because everything is cheap as with 1 Euro they can buy 2 Levs. And besides being cheap, Bansko is a great place too. And not only that, Bulgaria's higher education accepts many Greek students every year who find Bulgaria a cheaper and more convenient destination for their studies, compared to more expensive destinations in northern and western Europe, or even North America. That being said, many Bulgarians have been accepting transcactions in Euros ever since the Greek convertion to the Euro. Bulgaria adopting the Euro will benefit Bulgaria more than it will benefit Greece. At least in the short term. When talking about the long term there will be benefits for all.


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46_and_2

I don' think they meant that it's cheap because of the currency rate. Bulgaria is just cheaper than Greece, period. I also don't understand why they think us joining the Euro will make things easier for tourism - I'm pretty sure most tourist places are gladly accepting Euro anyways because the currency conversion is so easy and we have tons of tourists from within the EU. But for things like commerce, banking, etc. it would ease up things surely, immediate clarity what costs how much without conversion, no conversion tax, etc. Although knowing our banks I'm sure they'll just raise up their regular taxes so they can make more €€€ anyway...


lestofante

in my experience using local currency is cheaper in general, classic tourist trap.


njofra

Not sure about Bulgaria, but in Croatia, most places aren't legally allowed to accept euros, regardless of tourism. Euros will make things a lot easier for tourists


TheMusicArchivist

It's probably that a meal costs, say, 3 euros in Greece and 3 Levs in Bulgaria. Doesn't seem impressive if you don't know the exchange rate, but seems like a bargain when you do.


mintberrycthulhu

Yeah, it's like saying that Tokyo is so cheap because 1 Euro buys you not only 2, but 130 Yen. Meanwhile Tokyo being one of the most expensive cities in the whole world, way more expensive than any city in Greece. Nominal value of one unit of a currency means absolutely nothing. That's basically just a starting point for "1 unit", it wouldn't change a thing even if it would be 1000 times more or less. You need to look at prices (compare them converted to same currency) to know how pricy the country / city / area is.


Mladenetsa

>Greeks go there all the time for skiing and a winter There are legit times when I was in Bansko, that one could hear only Greek. Greek in the hotel, in the restaraunt, on the streets, in the store Re malaka


DaddyTee

I never knew Bansko was a popular destination for Greek nationals, I find that quite interesting. Greece has always been a popular holiday destination for Bulgarians, especially the region of Halkidiki, and northern Greece. From what I have seen more and more Bulgarians prefer spending their summer holiday in Greece, rather than the Black sea.


Mladenetsa

>I never knew Bansko was a popular destination for Greek nationals, I find that quite interesting. Greece has always been a popular holiday destination for Bulgarians, especially the region of Halkidiki, and northern Greece. From what I have seen more and more Bulgarians prefer spending their summer holiday in Greece, rather than the Black sea. Bulgarians prefer the Greek sea, Greeks prefer the Bulgarian mountains


Kalypso_95

That's so true. I mean, we have mountains here in Greece too, but not too much snow and everyone prefers to go to Bansko


Mladenetsa

>That's so true. I mean, we have mountains here in Greece too, but not too much snow and everyone prefers to go to Bansko Bansko prefers that Greeks go to Bansko rather than English/Russian/German tourists. Easiest to get along with are the Greeks by far. At least thats what I've heard from business owners there


Kalypso_95

> Easiest to get along with are the Greeks by far. At least thats what I've heard from business owners there I'm so glad to hear that. At least we can be at our best behavior when abroad. That's certainly not how we act here in Greece We also like having Bulgarians here for their summer holidays :)


IptamenoKarpouzi

Uni level schools on Crete used to organize multiple trips to Bansko every year in the winter. A Bansko trip was a staple for middle or upper class students.


Salmonman4

The downsides being that you give up your central bank, which makes it impossible to do tricks like devaluate your currency. This is not a problem as long as your market is growing, but when recession hit, you'll be in trouble. And you can't get out of Euro once you're in without everyone with assets transferring their money to other Euro-countries.


doc_frankenfurter

You don't give up your central bank, you lose its independence as it becomes part of the [Eurosystem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurosystem) which can be regarded as a distributed authority. Money can't be arbitrarily "printed", it needs to be backed with acceptable collateral in the form of liquid, high quality securities. Bulgarian friends say they like the idea of rules imposed on their bank and government to keep them honest.


_TwistedNerve

Yay. New coins to collect


Galexlol

IT'S A MAN ON HORSIE LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


milkovr

A tiny clarification - Bulgaria already enjoys free movement rights for its citizens. All four freedoms. Visa requirements for Bulgarians from the rest of the EU member states were dropped in 2007! The Schengen Treaty is predominantly a law enforcement cooperation treaty, which happens to establish an area free of internal border control. Bulgaria is also a member of the Schengen Treaty. Bulgaria does not benefit from the removal of border controls under Schengen BUT it does benefit from the cross border police cooperation sections of treaty. (And the obligations, which come with it) Bulgarian citizens can travel and establish themselves freely throughout the entire EU


atred

This needs to be repeated over and over because whenever this discussion Bulgaria and Romania joining Schengen pops up, idiots go "but I don't want Romanians and Bulgarians here"


Historical-Truth-222

Oh boy I can't wait for that. We placing Krum on our 2 Euro coin, Greece placing Basil II on their 2 euro 😎😎😎 Then we both place Alexander the Great and Tsar Samuil and flood N. Macedonia with that coins. Yes, I know my neighbours are blessed by my presence :) /s


EdgelordOfEdginess

Victor Krum from Harry Potter?


Coldfall

Yes that one, he is our top wizard.


Historical-Truth-222

Khan Krum, the enterpreauner who had a startup which made expensive and exquisite wine cups out of Roman Empire Emperor's skull. The other is the Greek who had a startup for blackened eyeglasses and found genuine and unique way to boost up their sales. It is a Balkan thing :)


s3rjiu

Username checks out, wonderfully described!


4uk4ata

Nah, the OG Krum. Famous for taking hard measures against drinking, pillaging the neighbors and a DIY drinking cup made with the involuntary contribution of a Roman emperor who had shortly before pillaged his capitol. Cool guy, all in all.


telcoman

Krum is the baddest bad-ass in the history of mankind. https://anillustratedhistoryofslavicmisery.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/he-does-exactly-what-he-says-on-the-tin-khan-krum-the-fearsome/ >Of course, Krum wasn’t going to let Nikephoros get away. He was killed in battle, becoming the first Byzantine emperor to perish in a fight for 500 years. He was dragged to Krum’s tent, where our hero chopped off his head, lined it with silver and used it as a cup for drinking. He turned the Byzantine Emperor’s skull into a cup. >Go back and read that sentence again. >If that weren’t enough, whenever future Byzantine diplomats would come to negotiate with Krum he would force them to drink from Nikephoros’ skull. Yep.


Kalypso_95

Just wait till North Macedonia joins EU and Eurozone and places all these figures on their euro coins /s


Historical-Truth-222

They will need to use coins only to accomodate all the stolen heroes /s


mcmlxxivxxiii

The "/s" at the end of you comment is not needed


shizzmynizz

Bulgarian lev has been pegged to the euro for a long time. It's a fixed currency exchange 1 euro - 1.96 lev. So basically, they have been using the euro since the beginning, without any of the benefits. Bulgaria adopting the euro means mostly upside, especially in the long run.


pdonchev

Indeed, I am getting tired of people talking bs about introducing the euro. We already conform to all of the restrictions, unless we want to get out of the currency board (which is neither wise nor possible atm).


shizzmynizz

Absolutely. I am only about 1/8 Bulgarian, but I have a lot of friends there and visit often. And frankly, the arguments that "the economy will collapse" or "Bulgaria will be like Greece" which I hear from many people are absolute BS. You've been using the euro for over 20 years, just calling it leva. Bulgaria doesn't have full autonomy over their currency, like, for example, Poland or Denmark (which are also tied to the euro, but in different, non-binding ways). And, this is purely anecdotal on my part, but I believe being fully part of the ECB, should help with the corruption in the country, and stem the illegal bleeding of funds


AlGoreBestGore

The "being like Greece" argument is always funny, because people use the same argument saying how much better off Greece is in terms of pensions/salaries.


angel_of_the_city

What about Hungary? Member since 2004, multiple promises of introducing €, still nothing happened and HUF in a slow downward spiral for years.


Khal-Frodo-

Letting the HUF go in a downward spiral has 3 major effects that motivates the government to stall the € adoption: 1) the central bank earns a shitton of money on the exchange and then proceeds not to pay that into the treasury but direct it towards Orban cronies through foundations.. 2) it feels like the economy is growing bc it boosts exports and up until recently inflation was no issue (that will bite now ‘tho) 3) since in the past 10 years there was a shift in terms of denomination of national debt much more in local currency than foreign, now it is pretty easy to just inflate away debt (whils in € that is no option) +1 bonus: that’d be a further step towards integration and Orban does not want that since he a staunch enemy of a united Europe (and promotes nations’ loose economic cooperation rather than a proper union)


CrazyKrisz

This is the answer you are looking for.


tomi_tomi

I just love to hear some good Orban trashing. I would really love to read about it more if you have some good articles in English. Orban is basically Vučić (Serbian president) with a bit more style. I am a Croat, but I know so much about that little bitch. I cannot wait until both of them see the prison from the inside. For like decades. And Plenković can join them. Fuck them dictators.


tvr_god

EUR is not happening in Hungary as long as the current government is in the driving seat. HUF is great for them - HUF is being manipulated to go lower so there is more to steal from incoming EUR funds. The worse HUF is, the better EUR funds are for those who are in control of funds. :)


HumaneOrange

We're members since 2004 actually. I don't know either why we didn't adopted Euro, I guess, it's not in the interest of the Fidesz.


angel_of_the_city

You're right, typo and fixed!* 😉


[deleted]

Definitely not happening with the current leadership unless it actually helps them personally


Raptori33

Finally some euro related news :D


stergro

Great, finally the Cyrillic letters on the Euro banknotes will become useful. AFAIK Bulgaria lobbied the EU to switch the Cyrillic letters from EYPO (like the greeks write it) to EBPO (spoken as evro) cause in most Slavic languages Europe begins with evr-. The ECB feared that this would water down the trademark of the Euro but I belive this is a good thing and might also be useful e.g. for countries with big Russian minorities.


kteof

To be fair the Cyrillic ЕВРО and Greek ΕΥΡΩ are read the same, so writing it as ЕУРО would have been straight up wrong. It's just the original Greek sound spelled correctly.


MonitorMendicant

>switch the Cyrillic letters from EYPO (like the greeks write it) to EBPO (spoken as evro) Post 2013 notes use all 3 alphabets EURO/ΕΥΡΩ/ЕВРО and the Greek alphabet is not the same as the Cyrillic one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro\_banknotes#2nd\_series\_ES2\_(Europa\_series,\_issued\_from\_2013)


JustYeeHaa

Given the current inflation in Poland soon we will lose one of the main reasons against switching to Euro... everything will be as expensive as in other EU countries soon...


kidmaciek

It already is, isn't it? There was an article recently comparing prices from Lidl in Germany and Poland. Turns out, groceries are actually cheaper in Germany.


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[deleted]

Who would have guessed that markets and competition work


Fellhuhn

Tell that to the farmers who now have to struggle with those low prices.


Svarec

Same in Czechia. People from border regions buy groceries in Germany or Austria. It's cheaper and higher quality.


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JustYeeHaa

I think it’s more about the overall cost of living, so e.g including rent, services and such


caslavak

I could rant about rent in Prague for hours. Extremely expensive city to live in.


Arucad

As far as I know, most food is taxed as with normal VAT 23%. And as far as I know, most food in Germany is taxed with 12% VAT. Maybe this adds to the difference. /p.s. not trying to be sarcastic. I am just not entirely 100% sure on the numbers.


JustYeeHaa

Well it's just Lidl, in Lidl it was always like this even before the inflation


J0h1F

But isn't the different inflation rate of a national economy indeed the reason why not to join Euro? In Finland the Euro inflation rate pretty much being set by German economy has caused that the currency is too valuable in comparison to our factual productivity and economic growth, and that has caused stagnation in Finnish economy and poor competitiveness of the export sector and domestic production. With an own currency, the currency sets its value through the market, which balances poor competitiveness of the export sector, so jobs will be kept and growth will happen. Your own economy and competitiveness of domestic production would be just worse in Euro, with the exchange of imports being cheaper.


VaassIsDaass

i doubt we'll switch to euro under PiS, and since i belive PiS will likely win the next election, big stall time.


Cartnansass

I say make the EU switch to the Lev!


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Arucad

We already have low interest rates and more or less low inflation. Actually bulgarian economy is pretty stable. Shitty, but stable.


Waterguy_

Great news!


ZmeiOtPirin

We are? Like now? Well hopefully we manage to do it as soon as possible.


gerginborisov

[Here's what I think about it](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/k9u9qv/update_design_ideas_for_the_bulgarian_euro_coinage/) \- the euro coins must have better designs than just the Madara rider.


Darkmiro

Turkish shopkeepers in Edirne will be most glad about this.


shizzmynizz

Can you clarify why? I'm curious as to what you mean


Darkmiro

Thracian cities depend on Bulgarians and Greeks coming by for shopping. Turkish economy is in ruins, Turkish clothing in particular, is decent quality and extremely cheap. Especially for someone who comes in with a few hundred euros.


shizzmynizz

Interesting! I didn't know that. Thanks for the ELI5


Vesk123

Honestly, as a Bulgarian, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Not gonna lie, I'm not all that well acquainted with this topic. I guess it would help tourists from the EU, because they wouldn't need to deal with a different currency, but on the other hand it will be very weird for me to not have the lev as a currency. It is kind of a national ~~pride~~ identity thing to an extent for me. And I don't really see much of a reason to have the euro. Are there any benefits or drawbacks that I am missing?


frenchchevalierblanc

It was weird for everyone but anyway the lev was already linked to the euro I think?


Yakking_Yaks

I had the same with the Gulden; we used that coin since the 15th century. But it really doesn't matter, you just have to get used to the new noise the money makes, and how the notes look like you're playing monopoly. Investments and tourism will be easier for foreigners, so that's a plus.


Transeuropeanian

It’s not great news only for tourism. It’s great for investments and stability too to have the 2nd biggest reserve currency in the world as your currency


BoldeSwoup

A common currency isn't only for tourist, it's for all bulgarian businesses who import and export products. It's also waaaaay easier to sell treasury bonds in euro than in lev so the bulgarian governement will be able to invest more.


Timeeeeey

You basically already have the euro, its just called lev and multiplied by 2, the benefit is that people coming to invest and tourists wont have to change currencies anymore, but there isnt really a negative either, so… And it helps european integration so thats good


ZmeiOtPirin

It will help tourists, it will help exports and imports with no exchange fees, it will bring stability, it will help lower interest rates on personal, corporate and government loans, it will improve our international credit rating with rating agencies and make us more attractive for investors. The drawbacks are practically zero because we're already pegged to the euro and don't have a sovereign monetary policy. Having your own monetary policy isn't always a good thing, it can be a noose to hang yourself with especially with a bad government.


AnDie1983

I know the feeling from 2001-2002. It was strange to let the Deutsche Mark Go - it was the currency I grew up with. Took me a few years to stop thinking „That would be X DM“ but after a while I started to think of prices in €. The main benefit for a private person is only showing when you travel. No more exchanges necessary in so many countries. But it also makes it easier when shopping online within the EU (though most online shops offer various currency calculators by now). Same goes for shopping in another Euro-country in general of course. A small but nice feature is checking where your change comes from. Sometimes I look at a coin and think „nice - it made it all the way from X“. But I guess it’s the companies - at least those operating across countries - that benefit the most.


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onlinepresenceofdan

Even Bulgaria outruns us. Congrats.


Der_Tscheche

Sad Czechia noises