Bulgaria submitted to Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, two candidates for Commissioner, reportedly becoming the only country to answer her request of proposing one male and one female applicant, on Friday (30 August).

The deadline for submitting nominees is 30 August, and Bulgaria almost left it too late because it is run by a caretaker government.

Current Prime Minister, Ivan Glavchev, previously said that he wanted to leave this task to the next government, but elections are not due until 27 October.

Seven candidates

Earlier this week Glavchev invited all political parties represented in the national parliament to submit names. GERB (EPP) nominated Ekaterina Zaharieva, the liberal force “We Continue the Change”, nominated Julian Popov, a former minister of environment and water in the cabinet of Nikolai Denkov (2023-2024), the faction led by Delyan Peevski of the Movement of Rights and Freedoms (DPS) nominated former member of the European Parliament (MEP) Iskra Mihailova, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) nominated a man and a woman – former minister Dragomir Stoynev and current MEP Tsvetelina Penkova, the maverick “There is such a people” nominated Velislava Petrova and the pro-Russian “Vazrazhdane” nominated Viktor Papazov. The latter two are little-known names in Bulgaria.

On Friday, Glavchev made his choice from the seven candidates put forward. He proposed Zaharieva, who served in the former government of Boyko Borissov as foreign minister (2017-2021) and as minister for regional development in two caretaker governments in 2013 and 2014, and Popov, a former minister of environment in the government of Nikolay Denkov (2023), and in the caretaker government of 2013.

Currently, Bulgaria is the only country putting forward two candidates, a male, and a female, as per von der Leyen’s request in her letter to member states inviting nominees for EU Commissioners by 30 August latest.

Most likely pick

Zaharieva is seen as von der Leyen’s most likely choice, mostly because she is a woman, and would make the Commission lineup more palatable to the European Parliament.

Borissov’s ex-foreign minister pick for EU commissioner most likely to get nomination

Bulgaria’s largest party, GERB (EPP), has nominated former Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, who is almost certain to be officially appointed by the caretaker government of Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, a former MP from the party.

Popov is better known in Western circles, than in his own country. He is a Fellow of the European Climate Foundation and a prominent climate activist. In 2016 he was recognised as one of the 40 most influential voices in European energy policy under the Euractiv-led survey Euractory40.

A weak point for Zaharieva could be her reported close relationship with VMRO, a far-right party that was a coalition partner of GERB during her mandate as foreign minister. According to whistle-blower, Katia Mateva, Zaharieva was aware of a VMRO-organised scam to illegally sell Bulgarian passports to foreigners. She has never disputed the allegation, Mateva has confirmed.

Bulgaria has a record of rejected candidates for EU Commissioner, Rumiana Jeleva, a foreign minister at that time, was rejected by the European Parliament in 2010.

Jeleva too had “skeletons in her closet”.

Bulgaria is not only unique in submitting two candidates – one male and one female, it is the only EU country to never have a male commissioner.

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