00:00What claims are being shared about Bulgaria's Eurozone accession?
00:07While Bulgaria progresses on its path to join the Eurozone by 2026, disinformation surrounding this has been spreading further,
00:15as members of the far-right pro-Russian revival party disseminate false claims.
00:19In an April interview with Bulgarian commentator Martin Karpovsky, known for spreading pro-Kremlin narratives,
00:26Revival MEP Rado Lykova claimed that European savings could be seized if not spent within a specific time frame.
00:33Lykova added that Europe was discussing using this money to fund military projects.
00:39This is part of a wider disinformation narrative which falsely accuses Brussels of wanting to dip into taxpayers' savings.
00:46In reality, European savings are protected by a number of legal mechanisms and cannot be seized indiscriminately.
00:54The revival party's leader, Kostadin Kostadinov, has also asserted that joining the Eurozone would lead to Bulgarians losing their savings.
01:01He said that the left to Euro exchange rate, which will come into place once the Euro has been introduced, would be less profitable.
01:08This is false as the Bulgarian parliament has set a fixed exchange rate before the change happens.
01:13Meanwhile, experts told Euroverify that disinformation around the Eurozone and Bulgaria has been shared by actors who serve Russia's strategic interests,
01:22adding that the Bulgarian population is particularly vulnerable to it.
01:25Anti-Eurozone disinformation campaigns are really effective in Bulgaria
01:29and a key factor in enabling these types of campaigns to be effective is the low media literacy in the country.
01:37According to a 2023 Eurobarometer survey, only 31% of Bulgarians possess basic digital skills,
01:45which is far below the EU average of 54%.
01:49And this gap makes the public more susceptible to fear-based narratives.
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02:04Then we'll see you at the next level, we'll see you at the next level of the Eurozone.
02:10When communications would be available on the next level, we'll see you at the next level of the Eurozone.
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