Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone has already brought visible benefits for some businesses, particularly small companies working with Western European partners, according to transport and logistics entrepreneur Valentin Radoykov. He says the adoption of the single currency has eliminated exchange-rate costs and, more importantly, has allowed Bulgarian companies to negotiate prices on the same terms as their European competitors.

“Since we entered the eurozone, my partners from Germany and Italy have been paying my services 30 percent higher,” Radoykov told Club Z. He has worked in transport, logistics and deliveries since 1992 and owns the small company VAIANA EOOD.

Radoykov said he deliberately prefers to keep his business small, arguing that this allows him to maintain a decent standard of living while operating entirely within the legal economy.

In his view, much of Bulgaria’s economy had effectively been operating in euros long before the country formally joined the eurozone. He points to the dominance of Western technology and investment in the country, while saying that Bulgaria primarily contributes land and labor.

“Everything else is ishlema, which means that the technology is Western. Accordingly, the investments are Western, and we only offer land and labor,” he said.

Before Bulgaria adopted the euro, however, transactions still required currency conversion and exposed businesses to exchange-rate arbitrage. Radoykov said his company alone lost about 10,000 euros through such conversions between 2007 and the end of 2025, according to an audit he conducted.

“For such a period, this is a negligible percentage, but with this money I could have invested in new freight vehicles, vans, etc. The bank simply took part of my business because of the conversion, currency conversion and arbitrage,” he said.

While 10,000 euros may seem relatively small for a transport company, Radoykov noted that the amount could have covered the initial leasing payment for a new van. The remaining payments would then be generated through deliveries.

For companies like his, the biggest change has been the way Western partners now perceive Bulgarian businesses, he said. Rather than treating them as a cheaper or less integrated part of the European market, they increasingly see them as companies operating under the same currency and within the same economic system.

Radoykov said this has had a direct impact on the prices he can charge. Before the euro was introduced, he claims, German companies paid around 30 percent less for his logistics services, despite having worked with him since 2007.

“They were pressuring me to lower prices precisely because we had not yet used the euro in our country. However, now they no longer have this reason and I have returned the prices that are fair in relation to the market,” he said.

According to Radoykov, Bulgarian logistics companies can now charge rates comparable to those in Germany. He also said intra-community transactions in the sector, which are exempt from VAT, have grown sharply since Bulgaria entered the eurozone.

“Thus, what is applied as a standard for logistics and transport services in Germany is now also applied to Bulgarian companies. Since we have been in the eurozone, intra-community transactions, which are exempt from VAT in logistics and transport, have ‘exploded’ with an increase in turnover,” he said.

The benefits are not identical for all trade, however. Goods entering Bulgaria from EU countries that do not use the euro, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, can still become more expensive because of currency conversion.

Radoykov also pointed to easier access to financing for small and medium-sized businesses following Bulgaria’s entry into the eurozone. He said lending has become easier, particularly for companies seeking to purchase vehicles, while leasing arrangements involving vehicle buybacks are also becoming available.

For that reason, he considers much of the public opposition to the euro to be political propaganda, although he acknowledges that his perspective is that of a business owner rather than a consumer, who may experience price increases differently.

Radoykov also had a personal connection to the currency change. In 2025, shortly before the euro’s introduction in Bulgaria, he filmed the arrival of the first euro banknotes on DHL planes and their transportation by armored vehicles to the Bulgarian National Bank.

The video he posted on Facebook attracted more than 3 million views and generated a large number of both positive and hostile comments. Radoykov subsequently used artificial intelligence to analyze the reactions.

His analysis found that only about 15 percent of the comments were negative toward the euro, while almost 10 percent of those negative comments appeared to have come from bots.

“That is, 5 percent were actually people who maliciously commented on the arrival of the first euro banknotes,” Radoykov concluded.

For him, the experience illustrates the contrast between the public debate over the euro and the practical impact of the currency change on businesses that trade extensively with the rest of the European Union.

Source: Club Z