site.btaEU Commissioner Nominee Popov Says He and Nominee Zaharieva Will Present Bulgaria in Best Way Possible

One of Bulgaria's EU Commissioner nominees Julian Popov wrote on Facebook on Saturday that he and nominee Ekaterina Zaharieva will present Bulgaria in the best way possible. The two were officially announced as Bulgaria's nominees on Friday by caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev at a Council of Ministers meeting with regional and deputy regional governors.

"Ekaterina is an extremely strong candidate with great political and administrative experience. I believe that both of us will represent Bulgaria in the best way in the upcoming process," Popov wrote.

Zaharieva was nominated by the GERB-UDF parliamentary group, and Popov was nominated by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB). In the last two days, Glavchev held talks with all the candidates nominated by parliamentary groups. 

"Europe needs a strong and highly competent Commission, determined to fight uncompromisingly the geopolitical challenges of the day. Hybrid propaganda that stirs up hatred and national division will not stop us. I believe that Europe will continue to support Ukraine because the aggression of the Russian dictatorship is a threat to European and our national security. We have successfully fought the threats to our energy security that many expected would lead us to recession and misery. We have done it. Euroscepticism, the result of fear, insecurity and external malicious incitement, has failed. It will not succeed in the future," Popov said.

"We must defend our secure and prosperous Europe, strengthen the competitiveness of our economy, invest more in research and innovation and defend our freedoms and quality of life," Popov wrote. He thanked everyone for their support.

Zaharieva expressed gratitude for the confidence of the Council of Ministers to send her as one of the two nominations for a member of the European Commission (EC) on behalf of Bulgaria. She wrote on Facebook on Friday. 

Bulgaria is the only country that complied with the request of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to nominate one man and one woman for the new EC, DPA reported.