Kuneva won't be commissioner, Bulgaria poll winner says[fr][de] 

Borissov, who won Sunday's elections by a landslide (EurActiv 06/07/09) and is expected to be the country's next prime minister, made it clear that he has no intention of proposing Kuneva as the Bulgarian candidate for a position in the next college of commissioners. 

"Ms. Kuneva has chosen her post and that's a member of the European Parliament," said Borissov, quoted by the Mediapool website. 

Meglena Kuneva, who is widely seen as a successful commissioner, led her party's NDSV list into the European elections. The Liberal-affiliated National Movement for Stability and Progress (NDSV) ranked fourth in the EU poll, obtaining an honourable 7.96% and two MEP seats. 

Former king resigns from party 

However, NDSV, the third partner in the outgoing coalition, was unable to repeat the same score in the national poll. It obtained only 3.23% of the vote and will not enter parliament after failing to reach the 4% threshold. NDSV leader Simeon Saxe Cobourg-Gotha, Bulgaria's infant king from 1943 to 1946, resigned yesterday, assuming responsibility for the defeat. 

NDSV, which originally stood for 'Simeon the Second National Movement', was recently renamed the 'National Movement for Stability and Progress', keeping the same acronym. 

'I will remain a European politician'

Speaking at a public event last week in Brussels, Kuneva was asked if she would take up the MEP job or be her country's candidate for another term as commissioner. She answered diplomatically that she would "remain a European politician". On that occasion, she told EurActiv that she would check with her country's authorities and make public her decision by 10 July, just ahead the inaugural session of the European Parliament on 14-16 July in Strasbourg. 

Borissov is widely expected to nominate Rumiana Jeleva as Bulgaria's commissioner. A sociologist by training and a specialist in regional development, Jeleva has until now been an MEP, elected from Borissov's EPP-affiliated centre-right GERB party.