Bulgaria’s caretaker government names candidates to be European Commissioner
Meeting on August 30, the Bulgarian caretaker government headed by Dimitar Glavchev decided to nominate GERB-UDF’s Ekaterina Zaharieva and We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria’s Julian Popov for the post of European Commissioner.
The decision came on the day of the deadline to submit the nominations to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will choose one of the two. That candidate, like those from other EU member states, will undergo a hearing in the European Parliament.
Zaharieva was foreign minister in Boiko Borissov’s third government, and previously served as justice minister in the second Borissov government, and deputy prime minister and regional development minister in two different caretaker cabinets.
Popov, an expert in energy, environment and climate change, was environment minister in the Nikolai Denkov government, having previously held that post in a caretaker government.
Bulgaria’s incumbent European Commissioner, Iliana Ivanova, said on August 29 that she could not stay on for “personal reasons”.
Glavchev earlier had called on parliamentary groups to nominate commissioners.
The Delyan Peevski faction of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms nominated former MEP Iskra Mihailova, pro-Kremlin party Vuzrazhdane nominated stock exchange founder Viktor Papazov, the Bulgarian Socialist Party MEP Tsvetelina Penkova and National Assembly deputy speaker Dragomir Stoynev and populist ITN former deputy foreign minister Velislava Petrova.
Glavchev, who interviewed the candidates, said at the start of the caretaker cabinet meeting that all candidates were “at an extremely high level” and the decision would be difficult.
Glavchev rejected media reports that the decision about which portfolio Bulgarian would get in the next European Commission had already been made.
The portfolios would be allocated by the European Council and no portfolio had been allocated, according to Glavchev.
He said that the correct approach would be for the National Assembly to nominate the Commissioner candidates, a view that earlier had been expressed by WCC-DB.
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