6 days to E-Day for Slovenia and Bulgaria's and Romania's Big Day

The 1st of January is going to a big day for the EU. Slovenia will adopt the Euro and Bulgaria and Romania will join the EU

Slovenia will adopt the euro on the 1st of January 2007 at the rate of 239.640 tolars per euro. As a result, the euro area will have a population of 316.6 million, including 2.0 million Slovenians

From the 1st of January, Slovenians will be able to pay in euros or in tolars and receive the change in euros. This period during which the euro and the tolar will both be legal tender (so-called dual circulation period) will end on January 14. As from 15 January 2007 only euro cash will have the status of legal tender in Slovenia. However, it will still be possible to exchange tolars free of charge afterwards

Dual display of prices in euros and in tolars is compulsory since March 2006, which should help consumers getting used to the new scale of values, especially since July when the conversion rate was irrevocably fixed by the ECOFIN ministers.

EU finance ministers and prime ministers have been invited to official celebrations in Ljubljana on 15 January, the deadline for the Slovenian tolar to be removed from circulation.

A guide to the Euro Currency is available from the DG Ecfin website

Preparations in Bulgaria and Romania are under way in Bucharest and Sofia to celebrate their entries to the EU, which could be the last for some time.

Battenberg Square in Sofia will be the scene of Bulgaria’s largest event – organised by a planning committee led by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev. Bulgaria has declared 2 January a public holiday.

In Romania there will be double celebrations in the town of Sibiu, the Transylvanian capital, which also becomes, along with Luxembourg, the European capital of culture on 1 January.

There will also be joint celebrations at the Giurgiu-Rousse Friendship Bridge on the Bulgarian-Romanian border, where guards will exchange gifts.