site.btaMEP Radan Kanev Comments Favourably on Ekaterina Zaharieva's Hearing for European Commissioner

Bulgarian MEP Radan Kanev (from the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, part of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria coalition, which in turn is part of the European People's Party in the European Parliament) told BTA that Ekaterina Zaharieva performed quite well at her confirmation hearing for European Commissioner on Tuesday.

"I would say that Ekaterina Zaharieva presented herself quite decently. This is the beginning of the hearings, we have not seen much of the other candidates, but she was confident, she was familiar with the portfolio that she has been nominated for. Accordingly, there was no sharp opposition," said Kanev after Tuesday's hearing of Bulgaria’s candidate for EU Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation at the European Parliament in the Belgian capital Brussels.

Zaharieva was approved as a member of Ursula von der Leyen's new European Commission by both the main examining European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, and by Committee on Culture and Education, which was invited to the hearing.

Kanev also commented on the intention of the Bulgarian candidate for European Commissioner, stated during the hearing, to increase investments in innovation and scientific research to 3% of the gross domestic product of EU member states.

"It is about what the budget of the Horizon Europe programme will be, the main programme in Zaharieva's portfolio. This is the programme that supports the European policy in innovation. In the previous budget, the Horizon Europe programme was curtailed, so now the struggle, not only for Zaharieva, but, I would hope for the entire European Commission, is for increasing the budget for this programme. This was Mario Draghi's express recommendation in his report," added the Bulgarian MEP.

Kanev noted that part of the innovation and research budget is directly or indirectly related to innovations in defence, which, he hopes, will serve favourably in significantly increasing said budget.