site.btaUPDATED Hearing of Bulgarian Commissioner-Designate Starts at EP

A hearing of the Bulgarian candidate for the European Commission, Iliana Ivanova, has started in the European Parliament. It is expected to last three hours. In her opening remarks, Ivanova said she is aware of the burden and responsibility to achieve a lot in a limited time. She spoke in Bulgarian, English, German and French.

If confirmed, Iliana Ivanova will take up the post of commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth by the end of the Commission's term next autumn.

She also said early in the hearing: "My goal is to work closely with the EP, with the EU countries, and with international partners. I can only promise what I believe I can deliver."

She promised to give honest answers to the 25 questions from MEPs on the parliamentary committees on industry, research and energy and on culture and education.

In her words, the EU research budget will never be enough, but it is important that every euro invested brings additional benefits. She explained that the European Commission could make recommendations for reforms in EU countries and one way of doing this would be through plans for recovery from the pandemic. Investing in science helps boost economic growth - if we don't do it now, the losses will be significant, Ivanova noted. 

Ivanova vowed to focus her efforts on supporting cultural diversity as a core European value and a clear mark of the European way of life. In her words, it is important that support for Ukraine is not delayed and goes to rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure. Ivanova pointed out that she would work for the rapid opening in Kyiv of a representative office of the Horizon Europe programme as well as an innovation centre.

She also said that she regrets to see the opportunities for young people to participate in European educational programmes being limited. She was referring to the decisions of the Hungarian authorities related to the work of universities. She said she is following the Commission's dialogue with Budapest and is aware that the talks are not making progress. She said she would try to be part of the solution and insisted that the dialogue must be maintained in search of a solution.