site.btaGERB Leader Borissov: Zaharieva's Portfolio Fits Bulgaria's Role

GERB leader Boyko Borissov Tuesday told reporters in Parliament that the portfolio handed out to Ekaterina Zaharieva in the European Commission fits well into the party's programmes about Bulgaria. He was referring to Zaharieva's selection as EU Commissioner-designate for Startups, Research and Innovation.

Zaharieva was nominated by GERB-UDF.

"First and foremost, during her [Ursula von der Leyen's] election campaign, she emphasized the need to improve Europe's competitiveness against the US and China, and now this portfolio has been assigned to our commissioner," Borissov added.

"We are immensely grateful because, in the next five years, with effective governance by regular governments, Bulgaria can achieve a great deal. The supercomputer is in Bulgaria. We have a substantial IT community, and what we have accomplished in institutes and education is extremely important," he said.

Borissov said that the EU's most powerful programmes are about the economy, industry, competitiveness and innovation. Bulgaria is a good choice for this portfolio linked to the Horizon Europe Programme, GERB's leader said.

For his part, GERB Deputy Chair Tomislav Donchev said Horizon Europe has a budget of EUR 100 billion, which is sufficient evidence of the importance of this sector.