Bulgaria plans to adopt the euro and become the 21st member state of the Eurozone. The lev has been on the currency board since 1997 through a fixed exchange rate of the Bulgarian lev against the Deutsche Mark. The euro is targeted to be introduced on 1 January 2025, making the euro the country's second currency after more than 140 years of the lev being the national currency. The official exchange rate of the lev against the euro is 1.95583 lev for 1 euro. Convergence criteria Bulgaria committed to switching its currency, the lev, to the euro upon its joining the European Union in 2007, as stated in its EU accession treaty. The transition will occur once the country meets all the euro convergence criteria; it currently meets three of the five criteria. As the current lev was fixed to the Deutsche Mark at par, the lev's peg effectively switched to the euro on 1 January 1999, at the rate of 1.95583 leva = 1 euro, which is the Deutsche Mark's fixed exchange rate to the euro. Bulgarian euro coins have not yet been designed, but their motif has been chosen to be the Madara Rider. Bulgaria officially joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) on 10 July 2020. Bulgarian government and central bank officials adopted a draft national plan for euro adoption on 30 June 2021. They stated earlier that day Bulgaria's intention to adopt the euro on 1 January 2024. In May 2022, the government adopted a more definitive version of its plan for the introduction of the euro in Bulgaria that reaffirmed the country's commitment to adopt the euro on the target date. In 21 February 2023 Bulgaria have scrapped the idea of adopting the single currency in 1 January 2024 due to internal political crisis. The Maastricht Treaty, which Bulgaria acceded to by way of its EU accession treaty in 2007, requires that all members of the European Union join the euro once certain economic criteria are met. In November 2007 the Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski stated that his goal was to comply with all five convergence criteria by 2009 and adopt the euro in 2012. Besides not complying with the requirement to be an ERM-II member for two years, Bulgaria also did not satisfy the price stability criterion in 2008. Bulgaria's inflation in the 12 months from April 2007 to March 2008 reached 9.4%,