Bulgaria looks to be on track to win the European Union’s approval to adopt the euro in January 2026. The bloc’s poorest member has being laying the groundwork for years to join the single currency, with successive governments claiming this will help close the wealth gap with other EU states.

Across the Atlantic, the euro was designed to be more than a regional currency. From its inception in the 1990s, its architects envisioned not only greater monetary stability and economic integration within Europe, but also a currency that could rival the dollar on the global stage.

The euro zone economy is still just limping along and a raft of surveys published on Thursday point to only lukewarm optimism among firms as services, the bloc's engine in the past, also appear surprisingly weak.

A key measure of euro-area pay growth plunged, supporting the European Central Bank’s claim that inflation will soon hit the 2% target and backing calls to lower interest rates further.

One-euro home selloffs in Sicily typically get snapped up very quickly, but local siblings Antonino and Carmelo Cuschera have dedicated themselves to hunting down more properties for eager bargain hunters.

Enel's shareholders on Thursday approved a buyback plan and the possibility to cancel acquired shares without reducing its capital, opening the way for Italy's biggest utility to increase its investor reward.