There is currently no European Union decision or legislative proposal to ban cash payments, yet the issue has become part of the governing program of Prime Minister Rumen Radev's government, which plans to guarantee the right to pay in cash in the Bulgarian Constitution.
The proposal is striking because cash is not currently facing a legal threat. Euro banknotes and coins remain legal tender across the European Union, while the European Commission and European Central Bank have repeatedly stressed that the planned digital euro is intended to complement cash rather than replace it.
The issue has nevertheless become politically charged in Bulgaria, where fears about a future "cash ban" have for years been promoted primarily by the anti-European "Revival" party. Radev's Progressive Bulgaria had not previously made the subject a prominent political issue, but the pledge appeared in the government's program adopted and published in mid-August.
Adrian Nikolov of the Institute for Market Economics sees little justification for such a constitutional amendment. "There is no need for cash payments to be guaranteed through the Constitution," he said.
He argues that the proposal amounts to a response to a danger that does not currently exist. "This would be protection from some kind of ghost - you are protecting yourself from something that no one is trying to do," Nikolov said.
