Bulgaria is expected to become the 21st member of the Eurozone in 2026. But Euro expansionism is not a sign of economic strength — it is the last gasp of a declining project, a classic symptom of decay.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to publish its convergence report within days. All indications suggest it will give Bulgaria the green light to join the Eurozone as early as this summer, following the Bulgarian parliament’s formal request to the ECB last July.
But Bulgaria’s accession raises broader questions about the Eurozone’s future depth of expansion. In light of persistent debt crises in southern Europe and recurring signs of fragility in the sovereign bond markets, is this not yet another textbook case of imperial overstretch? And more pointedly: is this expansionism not itself a symptom of internal decay?
Friedrich Nietzsche would have understood this well. His central insight was that sick cultures instinctively choose what harms them. “The decadent always chooses the means detrimental to himself,” he wrote in Ecce Homo. When applied to political institutions, the result is a self-undermining spiral: decisions are no longer made to strengthen vitality but to preserve appearances. The Eurozone’s expansion at this late hour seems to follow that very pathology.
Symptoms on a Supranational Level
Transposed to the supranational monetary level, the diagnosis fits seamlessly. From the day it was created, the Euro project has been marked by inherent tensions, political conflicts, and economic divergences that have built into a growing centrifugal force.
Historically, currency unions tend to collapse after about 35 years due to this centrifugal pressure. Exceptions are currency unions that deepen a prior political-cultural unity among previously separate populations. The most prominent example is the U.S. dollar, which gave the young nation, essentially a confluence of European migrations, an internal anchor.
The Euro project, by contrast, follows a centrally planned, top-down command logic. It was preceded by a fleeting supranational political coordination that, given the diversity, linguistic variety, and deep-rooted historical traditions of Europe’s peoples, will never reach a lasting conclusion. Whether one likes it or not, the United States of Europe will never become a political reality.
Currency Without Foundation
The decision to implement a currency without common debt consolidation and deep financial market integration, in order to force political unity, is, in historical context, a dead end. Anyone wanting a vivid picture of this currency’s end phase should study the recent Euro crisis and extrapolate its volatile course into the future. The promised economic convergence of states never materialized. The split into a much stronger economic North and a South drowning in debt will trigger massive speculation in national bond markets. (RELATED: Ursula von der Leyen: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing)
This forms social tinder in case of a crisis. The latest crisis was triggered by the loss of confidence in the economic stability of Greece, the smallest member, contributing only about 2.5 percent to the Eurozone economy. That now Bulgaria, at a similar economic level, is joining the fatal collective fate of the Eurozone is, as Nietzsche noted at the outset, a sign of decay, not of inner strength.
Symbolic Politics Without Foundation
At first glance, this accession appears symbolic. With a 0.4 percent share of the Eurozone’s economy, Bulgaria is an economic lightweight. GDP per capita hovers around 64 percent of the Eurozone average — closer to Romania than Italy. The government debt ratio is a commendably low 23 percent of GDP, but it fails to reflect the structural weakness of the Bulgarian economy.
Rather, the country finances itself partly thanks to a stable currency peg to the Euro and massive EU transfers, creating an artificially induced illusion of stability.
Joining the Euro is a geopolitical declaration for Sofia, but economically a risky entry into a transfer and inflation union. Bulgaria’s accession reveals less economic sense than political defiance — the well-rehearsed ritual of expansion aims to simulate stability and strength.
Expansionism trumps economic reason.
Historical Model: The Latin Monetary Union
It is often forgotten that the Eurozone follows the historical example of the 19th-century Latin Monetary Union. It collapsed under the same illusion that burdens the Euro today: the belief that superficial political unity can overcome monetary divergences. Differing fiscal disciplines, chronic balance of payment imbalances, and massive dilution of coin content — especially by Greece and Italy — undermined confidence in the common currency.
What began as a stability-oriented alliance ended in distrust, capital flight, and creeping decay. The Union existed on paper until 1927, but had long collapsed economically before then. What started as a pragmatic agreement to unify coin standards soon became a vehicle for political integration and economic equalization among unequal states. The next chapter of European history is well known.
The Illusion of Omnipotence
It will be neither Greece’s nor Bulgaria’s fault if the Eurozone slides into its next acute crisis. The real problem runs deeper: Brussels’s expanding central bureaucracy is increasingly merging with the economic power of the European Central Bank (ECB). A prime example is the pandemic emergency purchase program (PEPP), where the ECB, for the first time on such a large scale, bought member states’ government bonds — effectively financing national debts and creating dangerous political distortions. (RELATED: The Euro’s Paper Empire: Germany’s Big Bond Gamble)
This coordinated action between Brussels and Frankfurt fuels the fatal belief in the omnipotence of political control. The tried-and-true principle “market before state,” which secures bourgeois prosperity and limits government misbehavior, is systematically overridden — with unpredictable consequences for stability and trust. (RELATED: Europe’s Business Leaders Have Had Enough)
Euro expansionism is the symptom confirming the deep disintegration of the Eurozone. The visible economic divergences among member states will provoke speculative attacks on fiscally weak members in the coming debt crisis. In that case, even the last projectile in the ECB’s arsenal — the introduction of capital controls via the digital Euro — will not stop the currency’s decay.
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