site.btaAnything Is Possible in Election of New EC President, MEP Andrey Kovatchev Says

Anything is possible regarding the election of the new President of the European Commission, said GERB-EPP MEP Andrey Kovatchev in Strasbourg in an interview with BTA, minutes before being elected as the European Parliament's quaestor - a position that is related to the administrative issues of the institution and directly affects MEPs.

"At the moment, Ursula von der Leyen is fighting for every vote. Things are not clear-cut, because there may be a decision of the political groups to support, but this does not mean that every single MEP is not free in this secret ballot to decide whether to support Ursula von der Leyen or not", Kovatchev explained. On Thursday, the European Parliament must decide whether she will remain at the helm of the Commission.

The Bulgarian MEP did not rule out the possibility that national issues in certain countries such as France and Slovenia, for example, could influence some MEPs not to follow the official position of their group. Still, he does not expect any serious shocks or domination of the far right or the far left. 

"To us, they are equally dangerous. They have quite common positions in terms of destructive forces for less solidarity in Europe, for changes in cohesion policies, for less money for Eastern Europe, for not being accepted into the Schengen area by land or the eurozone, and in terms of support for Ukraine," Andrey Kovatchev added.

Responding to a question, he said that work is underway to get Bulgaria into Schengen by land by the end of the year. 

"It is very important what signals are coming from Bulgaria, whether we will be able to elect a predictable, stable government that will be able to build trust between the relevant ministries, especially the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice. With the help of EP and the EC, with the vast majority of the Council, we hope to convince our colleagues after the elections in Austria that this is also in their interest and will increase and not decrease the security of the Schengen area," Kovatchev said. 

According to him, the EU will continue to enlarge. 

"In my opinion Montenegro is the most advanced candidate, I hope by the end of this decade we will be able to accept at least one country from the Western Balkans, such as Montenegro, and this will be even more motivating for the others to overcome all the obstacles on the path of European integration. Especially as regards the Republic of North Macedonia and Serbia, where there are Bulgarian communities, to overcome the negatives coming from the past", the MEP noted.

He described Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's so-called "peace mission" regarding the war in Ukraine as his personal initiative. 

"It does not involve the European institutions, the Council or the European Commission in any way. It has been made clear that he has no mandate for any mission," Kovatchev stressed.

In his opinion, the Green Deal and Europe’s defence industry need revision.

"We should not shoot ourselves in the foot. The competitiveness of the European economy is the most important thing, the preservation and increase of jobs in the EU, the strategic autonomy of the EU, the supply of important raw materials and products, rare metals, all kinds of strategic raw materials, must remain an opportunity for the EU to function without being dependent on one source, be it Russia, China or India or Brazil," Andrey Kovatchev said.