The European Commission seems reluctant to admit Bulgarian arguments in demands on the right to continue spelling "euro" as "evro".

Ahead of its accession next January, the country has expressed concern over the differences between Bulgaria's Cyrillic and the EU's Latin alphabets. In response the European Central Bank (ECB) demands that "euro" be spelled and pronounced with a �u' and not a �v' as Bulgarians do (�evro').

The raft continues to be insurmountable despite meetings of Bulgarian Administration Minister Nikolay Vassilev with Jean Claude Pirie of the EU Secretariat-General in Brussels.

Talking to Bulgarian media on Friday Vassilev seemed to be discouraged saying the ECB sticks to its position that "the name given to the European currency shall be euro" and that "the name ... must be the same in all the official languages of the European Union, taking into account the existence of different alphabets".

The entry of Bulgaria to the EU25 will bring along a third official alphabet - besides the Latin and Greek. Greece has been allowed to use its own spelling on banknotes of euro.