Bulgaria was trying to convince the European Union (EU) to allow it keep the Bulgarian term for the European currency, which is ‘evro’, instead of ‘euro’, EUobserver reported.

Other EU member countries had also demanded to keep their versions of the term, but all requests had been denied. The denials “[casted] doubts on Sofia's chances to succeed,” EUobserver said.

Bulgaria’s State Administration Minister Nikolai Vassilev will discuss the issue with EU council officials on November 10 2006.

The European Central Bank (ECB) requires Sofia to unify its pronunciation of the common European currency with the other countries. The current EU rules state the word ‘euro’ must be identical for all member states, EUobserver said.

Bulgaria said that ‘evro’ was already part of the Bulgarian language made official by linguists as early as 1995. The same word was used in the EU accession treaty. Bulgarians said that if the word “euro” was introduced to their language, it would be completely new and artificial doublet.

The dispute involves different opinions on the correct “cyrilisation of the currency's name as the EU has to take into consideration the Bulgarian (Cyrillic) and Greek alphabets,” EUobserver said.