2024-08-31 09:27:35
The decision was difficult, the portfolios have not yet been allocated, says the Prime Minister
Acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev listened to the party calls for the two candidates for Bulgarian European Commissioner to be from the largest parliamentary groups.
On Friday, he officially sent the candidacies of Ekaterina Zaharieva (GERB) and Julian Popov (PP-DB) to Brussels.
In the coming days, it will become clear which of the two EC chief Ursula von der Leyen chooses. It was she who asked our country to broadcast one man and one woman.
However, President Rumen Radev insisted that Bulgaria nominate two women hours before the government decided on the names. According to the head of state, mostly men were proposed by the other countries, and this meant that a man proposed by Bulgaria would be automatically disqualified.
Unofficially, it became known that there was also a third favorite for European Commissioner – the ITN candidate Velislava Petrova. She was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kiril Petkov’s office, and now she is the head of the International Center for Future Generations in Brussels.
In the end, Glavchev decided to comply with von der Leyen’s demand. The leaders of GERB – Boyko Borisov, and PP – Kiril Petkov called for the candidates to be from the largest parties in the parliament.
The deputy head of the National Assembly Dragomir Stoynev and the MEP Tsvetelina Penkova (BSP), the founder of the stock exchange Viktor Papazov (“Vazrazhdane”) and the former MEP Iskra Mihailova (DPS) were also nominated as European Commissioners.
All candidates are at an exceptional level. We made the decision difficult, but we are convinced of its rightness, commented Glavchev. He also insisted that there is currently no assigned portfolio for any of the candidate commissioners. Unofficially, there is talk that Bulgaria may get the energy or the cohesion policy.