Bulgarian Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva will be given the portfolio "Start-ups, Research and Innovation" in the next European Commission. This was announced today in the European Parliament by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Later, in a brief statement to the media, Ekaterina Zaharieva described her portfolio as "the portfolio of the future" and then refused to answer journalists' questions, BNR's Brussels correspondent Angelina Piskova reported from Brussels.
According to European People's Party (EPP) MEP Andrey Kovachev, the portfolio is "very good and important for the European economy and competitiveness with other parts of the world".
"We were very late in the process and it is normal to get such a portfolio. We consume European politics, we have been part of it for a long time and in this case we get what is left at the end," Ilhan Kyuchyuk, MEP from Renew Europe, told BNR.
Reactions in Bulgaria were also mixed.
According to GERB leader Boyko Borissov (Zaharieva is a GERB candidate), this portfolio has some of the strongest and best-funded programmes. He recalled that during the election campaign, there was a lot of talk about "Europe's competitiveness against America, China". "It is our Commissioner who is given this portfolio. Many, many thanks," Borissov said.
Tsoncho Ganev, deputy leader of Vazrazhdane, said: "This portfolio reflects the EU's attitude towards Bulgaria.
"We in the Bulgarian Socialist Party think that Bulgaria has not been given a strong portfolio in the new European Commission," said Borislav Gutsanov, leader of the BSP parliamentary group. "We see that Ursula von der Leyen has given quite good chances to Romania, where they will have a second person in the Commission as vice-president," he noted.
A cold front will pass through the country overnight and tomorrow from the northwest . Rain will fall in many places in the western regions and the Danube Plain, and will quickly turn to snow in the high fields of western Bulgaria and the Balkan Range...
56% of Bulgarians prefer the new 51st National Assembly to form a government, even if this is at the cost of compromises, indicate data of a national representative survey conducted by the polling agency "Gallup International" for the "Referendum"..
A Memorandum of Cooperation between Cluster Trakia Economic Zone and Shenzhen Polytechnic University (SZPU) was signed in Beijing by Katya Staykova, CEO of Cluster Trakia Economic Zone, and Ms. LI Yue, Vice President of the Chinese higher education..
“It’s time to lift internal border controls now,” European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson believes. In an interview with RFE/RL she..
The Constitutional Court has opened a case following the request by President Rumen Radev for the amendments to the Constitution, endorsed by the 49 th..
Romania and Bulgaria have a chance to join the Schengen area by land as of January 2025 , Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pinter said after an..
Partly Cloudy