adopts

Move comes nearly two decades after the Balkan country entered the EU as hope for stability clashes with fear of rising prices.

Bulgaria has officially adopted the euro, becoming the 21st country to join the single currency nearly two decades after entering the European Union, a move that has led to both celebration and anxiety.

At midnight on Wednesday (22:00 GMT), the Balkan country abandoned the lev, its national currency since the late 19th century.

Images of Bulgarian euro coins lit up the central bank’s headquarters in Sofia as crowds gathered in freezing temperatures to mark the new year.

“I warmly welcome Bulgaria to the euro family,” said Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank.

Some residents welcomed the change with optimism. “Great! It works!” said Dimitar, 43, speaking to The Associated Press after withdrawing 100 euros from a cash machine shortly after midnight.

Successive Bulgarian governments have backed euro adoption, arguing it would strengthen the country’s fragile economy, anchor it more firmly within Western institutions and shield it from what officials describe as Russian influence. Bulgaria, with a population of about 6.4 million, remains the poorest member of the EU.

Divided public

Yet public opinion has long remained split. Many Bulgarians fear the euro will drive up prices while wages stagnate, worsening living standards in a country already struggling with political instability.

In a televised address before midnight, President Rumen Radev described the euro as the “final step” in Bulgaria’s integration into the EU.

However, he criticised the absence of a public referendum on the decision.

“This refusal was one of the dramatic symptoms of the deep divide between the political class and the people, confirmed by mass demonstrations across the country,” Radev said.

Bulgaria recently plunged into further uncertainty after anticorruption protests toppled a conservative-led government in December, pushing the country towards its eighth election in five years.

“People are afraid that prices will rise, while salaries will remain the same,” a woman in her 40s told the AFP news agency in Sofia.

At city markets, vendors listed prices in both levs and euros. Not everyone was worried.

“The whole of Europe has managed with the euro, we’ll manage too,” retiree Vlad said.

Bulgaria is saying goodbye to the lev and officially adopting the euro, but some citizens worry that shops will round up when changing currencies, making everything more expensive. Al Jazeera’s Aksel Zaimovic explains their concerns.

HumAngle, the newsroom known for its in-depth coverage of conflict, displacement, and insecurity across West Africa, has announced a major overhaul of how our journalists work and rest.

From January 2026, an Anti-Burnout Work Policy that restructures the work year into nine active months and three mandatory rest months will be introduced, while maintaining a full 12-month salary for our journalists.

The move, an attempt at reimagining what sustainable journalism looks like, is designed to protect mental health, reduce burnout, and sustain the quality of reporting from some of the region’s most difficult environments.

Under the new system, editorial staff will work in three cycles each year:

• Work: January–March 
• Rest: April
• Work: May–July 
• Rest: August
• Work: September–November 
• Rest: December

Traditional annual leave will be embedded into these rest periods, which are intended to serve as structured breaks for recovery, reflection, and creative renewal. The in-house workweek for journalists will also be shortened to three days — Monday to Wednesday.

Support teams and staff of the advocacy arm, HumAngle Foundation, will have a different, flexible structure: they will be required to work two in-office days per week, with the remaining days remote, and will receive 28 days of paid annual leave. Accountability and performance expectations will remain in place, but alongside a clearer recognition of human limits.

Why rest is now part of the job

HumAngle’s reporters routinely work in and around conflict zones, camps for displaced people, and communities living with violence and trauma. This kind of journalism demands not just technical skill but emotional stamina and deep empathy, and the costs are often borne silently. We have a dedicated clinical psychologist who supports staff well-being and manages secondary trauma that results from our regular interaction with violence and victims of violence.

HumAngle sees burnout not simply as personal exhaustion, but as a direct threat to credible journalism, storytelling, creativity, and accuracy. Building rest into the structure of work itself is a step towards treating mental health as a core requirement for excellence, not an afterthought. Well-rested journalists are better able to think clearly, write powerfully, and engage more sensitively with vulnerable sources and communities.

The policy aims to ensure continuity in coverage while allowing staff to step back regularly, process the emotional weight of their work, and return with renewed focus.

A cultural shift in African newsroom practice

Care, structure, and humanity, especially in newsrooms that routinely deal with violence, loss, and injustice, are critical for the sustainability of newsrooms. By aligning productivity with well-being, HumAngle hopes to model an alternative to the long-standing culture of overwork that exists in many media spaces.

The policy is a commitment to our people and our mission: to demonstrate that rest and excellence can reinforce each other, and that protecting journalists’ minds is part of preserving the integrity of the stories they tell.