Bulgaria had to propose only one candidate for European Commissioner and indicate the department for which he is fighting. This opinion was expressed by the former deputy. Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev.
„Bulgaria is the only one out of 27 member states that submitted two candidacies for European Commissioner and thereby pleased Ursula von der Leyen. We are doing this for the second time – the previous two applications were by Daniel Laurer and Iliana Ivanova. We did the exact opposite of what all the other member countries did. We did it because of the extremely weak, even non-existent foreign policy we have had in recent months. We had a prime minister who reconciled this post as well," commented the diplomat to Nova TV.
„The other countries said: „We believe that this portfolio would suit our national interests in the best way, and we are submitting a candidacy to the best expert that we bring out at the national level for this position. We are fighting for this portfolio with this candidate. And Bulgaria did the opposite - we gave two names, leaving the national choice of who will be Bulgaria's representative in the EC to Mrs. Von der Leyen. And secondly – we put the names, not standing behind them with springs”, Keremedchiev said.
„We put a name and we are waiting to see how the resources will be distributed,” said Keremedchiev. And he explained that now the Bulgarian candidate will have one week to prepare for the department that will be given to him.
„For me, this was extremely wrong and showed the weakness we show as a member of the EU”, Keremedchiev explained. “We should have taken out the relevant candidate and said: “We are fighting for this department and this is our candidate,”, the diplomat believes.
„We had a huge chance that we squandered, and that is the “Expansion” resource. They wouldn't have given it to us if we hadn't put it as a request, he added.
„Firstly, the current European Commissioner in charge of enlargement, Mr. Varhei, who is the Hungarian representative, receives huge criticism from other European countries for his poor management of the department and the preparation of the member states. Second, we currently see that the candidate countries for membership are from the Western Balkans and neighboring countries. Including North Macedonia. For Bulgaria, it was extremely important and a priority that we could lead this process and be able to deal with such an important process," Keremedchiev said.