European Parliament committee recommends approval of Bulgaria’s Zaharieva’s candidacy for European Commission – reports
An assessment meeting by members of the European Parliament’s industry, research and energy committee has ended with a recommendation of approval of Bulgarian European Commissioner-designate Ekaterina Zaharieva’s candidacy, Bulgarian-language media reported from the European Parliament on November 5.
Should the European Parliament as a whole vote to approve European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s second College of Commissioners, Zaharieva will take up the startups, research and innovation portfolio.
Zaharieva, a former foreign minister and member of Boiko Borissov’s centre-right GERB-UDF coalition, won the approval of seven out of eight co-ordinators on the committee. The sole vote against came from a far-left MEP, reports said.
Based on the committee recommendations, the Conference of Presidents (European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and political group leaders) is set to conduct the final evaluation and declare the hearings closed on November 21.
Once the Conference of Presidents declares all hearings closed, the evaluation letters compiled by the relevant standing committees will be published.
The election by MEPs of the full College of Commissioners (by a majority of the votes cast, by roll-call) is currently scheduled to take place during the November 25-28 European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg.
At her November 5 confirmation hearing, Zaharieva expressed her desire to place Research and Innovation (R&I) at the heart of the EU’s competitiveness agenda.
There is now momentum for investing more into R&I in a more strategic manner to allow Europe to achieve its digital and low-carbon transitions, she said, highlighting that R&I spending in Europe is lower than in the US, China or Japan.
She pledged to propose a European Innovation Act, to push Member States to meet the three per cent spending target on R&I, avoid brain drain, defend freedom of research, invest in R&I infrastructure and expand the European Research Council.
Zaharieva advocated for a comprehensive strategy to help start-ups and smaller companies grow by facilitating access to capital and cutting red tape.
She argued in favour of a strategy for European life sciences, boosting the use of AI in science, and an Advanced Materials Act.
Zaharieva said that the European Commission should also bring forward an action plan to help promote women in R&I and advocated for an ambitious budget for R&I in the next multiannual framework programme.
On international relations, she said the EU should defend the principle of reciprocity, level playing fields, and strategic autonomy, pledging to work with Ukrainian researchers and innovators as much as possible.
During the discussion, several MEPs called on the Commission to push member states to finally meet the three per cent of GDP R&I target, ensure the independence of the EU research programme, and to spend more money on research at the EU level.
In response, Zaharieva committed to fight for an independent and reinforced Framework Programme, and advocated increasing the R&I target to four per cent by 2030.
Several MEPs called for less red tape for SME applicants for EU research support.
Zaharieva said she is in favour of a strong simplification with a two-phase application process in order to minimise red tape. Other MEPs asked for EU R&I policy to have a stronger focus on nuclear research, in the context of the low-carbon transition.
(Photo: European Parliament)
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