Bulgaria and the euro government, notably economy minister Petar Dimitrov, have speculated about unilaterally introducing the euro, which was not well-met by the European Commission. The lev is not part of ERM-II, but since the launch of the euro in 1999, it has been pegged to the euro at a fixed rate of €1 = BGN 1.95583 through a strictly managed currency board. In all of the three latest annual assessment reports, Bulgaria managed to comply with four out of the five economic convergence criteria for euro adoption, only failing to comply with the criteria requiring the currency of the state to have been
Greeks in Bulgaria Greeks in Bulgaria Greeks in Bulgaria ( "Gǎrci") constitute the eighth-largest ethnic minority in Bulgaria ( "Voulgaria"). They number 1,356 according to the 2011 census. They are estimated at around 25,000 by Greek organizations and around 28,500 by the Greek government. The last numbers include the Sarakatsani community, the descendants of the post-WWII Greek emigrants, and other Greek citizens living in Bulgaria as students, businessmen, consorts etc. Today, Greeks mostly live in the large urban centres like Sofia and Plovdiv, but also in the coastal zone. Historically, the presence of a Greek population in what is today Bulgaria dates to