The election day in Brussels is unfolding amid an unusually sunny weather, reports Sibila Stoyanova, secretary of one of the two polling stations at the Bulgarian Embassy in the Belgian capital. There are a total of 16 polling stations in Belgium. It is difficult to say how many Bulgarians there are in Belgium, but according to statistical data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of 2021, the officially registered Bulgarian citizens in Belgium number 43,104. A large number of them work in the European institutions.

"So far, just over 100 people have voted at the two polling stations at the Bulgarian embassy, but I would like to clarify that this is not the busiest polling station here. The embassy itself is located outside the city center and is more difficult to access. Nevertheless, people are here and the queue does not end, which is a good sign. I see positive people who are willing to exercise their right to vote. There are many families with young children. There is some positive energy and interest in these elections", our compatriot told Radio Bulgaria.

"Many Bulgarians with dual citizenship – Bulgarian and Belgian – cannot vote for Bulgarian MEPs because they are required by Belgian law to vote for local MEPs. Belgium, like Bulgaria, is a country where voting is mandatory, so those Bulgarians with dual citizenship who have already exercised their right to vote in Belgium cannot vote for Bulgarian MEPs and therefore only vote for our national parliament."

There hasn't been a large election campaign in Brussels for the European elections, said Sibila.

"The only thing I can say is that the European Parliament itself had many initiatives aimed at informing citizens about the European elections- whether people's votes matter, what are the powers of the parliament, how to bring the parliament closer to the citizens, etc. I myself work in the European Parliament and I personally engaged in many initiatives to increase voter awareness-to show my friends that voting matters, to show them the benefits of being a member of the European Union.''

Stoyanova is adamant that there is no debate whether the 17 Bulgarian MEPs are too many or too few in the 720-seat European Parliament. 

''The number of MEPs from a given country has absolutely no significance, because the European Parliament is divided into parties. Here, as in the national parliament, there are different political groups, and once the MEPs from each member state are elected, they will join a certain political group. There, they will be mixed with other MEPs and the Bulgarian MEPs will become part of one whole- the European Parliament. In this way, they rarely act together, thus protecting Bulgarian interests as we may imagine it, because the European Parliament is the parliament of all European citizens."