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.
On Wednesday morning, visibility will be reduced in some places in the valleys, plains and along the Black Sea coast. Minimum temperatures will range between minus 3 and 2°C, around minus 2°C in Sofia. During the day it will be sunny with highs between..
For the first time in recent election history, the end election result leaves a party running in the election outside the National Assembly with a result of 3.999% (Velichie), 21 votes short of the electoral threshold, reads a position by the..
The Central Election Commission (CEC) is sending the prosecutor the video recordings of the ballot count in 7 polling stations where there is a discrepancy in the number of votes counted. The prosecutors will have to check whether there is..
Over 1/3 of the cases of African swine fever among wild boars in Europe have been registered in Bulgaria , the Association of Pig..
An engineering contract for the construction of new capacity at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has been signed by NPP Kozloduy - New Capacities..
17 drifting mines have been discovered and destroyed in the Black Sea by the Naval Forces of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey since the beginning of the war..
+359 2 9336 661