site.btaMEP Petar Volgin: Zaharieva Will Be Elected Commissioner as She Has Taken the Right Course

Bulgarian MEP Petar Volgin (Europe of Sovereign Nations/Vazrazhdane) told BTA's Martina Gancheva on Tuesday: "Ekaterina Zaharieva will be elected Commissioner because she has really taken the right course." Volgin, who is a substitute on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), said Zaharieva's hearing met his expectations and the rules of the Brussels game, without any particular surprises.

Zaharieva's portfolio as European Commissioner is Startups, Research and Innovation.

"Everything followed the familiar, politically correct track. This is how a candidate for a high post in the European institutions should behave and I have almost no doubt that Ms Zaharieva will be elected European Commissioner," said Volgin.

Asked to mark Zaharieva's performance at the hearing on a scale of 1 to 6, where 1 is poor and 6 is excellent, the MEP said: "It depends who is doing the marking because if we apply the Brussels criteria and the politically correct narrative, we might give Ms Zaharieva a 12. But if we evaluate her answers from the point of view of normality, then her mark would not be so great. Because she said that we should support Ukraine to complete victory, that Ukraine is also fighting for our freedom, which are cliched phrases that by no means reflect the infinitely complex world we live in. That is why it seems to me that in terms of normality, her performance was not perfect, but in the final analysis, when one is a candidate for office, it is important to meet the criteria of the establishment, not the criteria of normality."

In Volgin's view, the only questions that went beyond the cliche during the hearing were those put by MEPs from the Left, from Patriots for Europe and from Europe of Sovereign Nations.

Asked by BTA to comment on the importance of Zaharieva's portfolio, Volgin said: "What seems important to me when we talk about this portfolio - and I did ask such a question - is that here too, there is too much emphasis on the policy outlined in Mario Draghi's report, namely, that the focus should be on defence, on security, meaning that even innovation, startups and research should be slanted towards the military, with a prevalence of military-related research, and that is what will be sought. A growing militarization of Europe in all possible areas. In this sense, Bulgaria's role is almost minimal because we are not generating a policy of our own, we are moving in the rut of what is allowed and what is believed to be expected from us."

Petar Volgin sees no symbolism in the fact that the hearings of the Bulgarian and Austrian candidates for commissioners were held on the same day. "These are different things. As far as Schengen is concerned, as far as Bulgaria's accession to Schengen is concerned, this is not the top issue for me, I mean Bulgaria has other issues to solve at present and other challenges to deal with, both domestically and internationally," the Bulgarian MEP from Europe of Sovereign Nations said.