Iliana Ivanova and Daniel Lorer are the candidates for Bulgarian EU Commissioner

Iliana Ivanova, nominated by GERB-UDF, and Daniel Lorer, nominated by “We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria”, are Bulgaria's two nominees for EU commissioner to replace Mariya Gabriel, who took the post of foreign minister and in 8 months should be a rotating Prime Minister.

Iliana Ivanova from the European Court of Auditors is the GERB-UDF nominee for European Commissioner. Leader Boyko Borissov believes that this position belongs to the winner of the elections in Bulgaria and pointed out that "We Continue the Change" do not even have a European party family.

"Today we decided to nominate Iliana Ivanova - a very well-known face in Brussels, very competent. We had several other candidates - worthy, but the party stood behind Iliana Ivanova. Who should be the Bulgarian European Commissioner? Naturally, from the party that won the elections and those who were involved in the creation of the three institutions at the time. Here is the principle - nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. I used to be involved when the presidency of the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission were being stablished, you remember then the president was Manfred Weber, and then for us, for Bulgaria, a quota was left for a woman with a very nice portfolio from the EPP," Borissov said.

There is always a constructive tension between GERB-UDF and WCC-DB believes the other candidate Daniel Lorer. He is not worried about a female competitor for the post of commissioner. He believes that Mariya Gabriel's portfolio was vacated only a few weeks ago and therefore it is very possible that the same portfolio will be given to the future Bulgarian commissioner.

Image by BGNES

"I will be one of the two candidates for Commissioner of Bulgaria. President Von der Leyen's Commission started with a ratio of 15 to 12 - men and women. Halfway through this commission, Ireland had to replace its commissioner and he was replaced by a woman, so it became 14 to 13. Now, even if a man is elected to represent Bulgaria, that will bring the Commission back to the ratio it started with, so we have no problem with the framework already set by the current President of the Commission. The Prime Minister has judged that not only WCC-DB, but also GERB-UDF will be able to nominate a candidate, so I think this is a good sign of good tone. There is always constructive tension, you see it in Parliament. The important thing is that Bulgaria moves along and, most importantly, that we have a representative at the table of the European Commission when the fates of the whole continent are decided," said Daniel Lorer, a WCC-DB MP.

Vice President, Iliana Iotova, wrote on Facebook that the most important news was missing from the first official visit of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ms Gabriel to the European Commission - what portfolio the new Bulgarian commissioner will have. She adds that the decision on the portfolio of the Bulgarian commissioner cannot be taken "in the dark", without a discussion between all institutions, even though the proposal has to be made by only one.