Speaking in Brussels on 18 September, PM Borissov said the regional policy post would "really suit" Bulgaria.
However, Borissov indicated that this objective would be difficult to attain, as other countries are also interested. As alternatives, he mentioned the science, research and innovation portfolio, due to Bulgaria's long scientific and technical traditions.
During its recent communist past, Bulgaria specialised in computer technologies within the Soviet bloc, Borissov said. And John Vincent Atanasoff, a Bulgaria-born US citizen, is widely considered as the inventor of the first electronic digital computer in 1939.
Bulgaria is also interested in the enlargement and EU neighbourhood policy portfolios, Borissov added.
"We know that in the next few years only Croatia and Iceland are awaiting accession. It is not a very busy agenda, but it has a high political value," he told this website.
Borissov, leader of GERB (Citizens for the Democratic Development of Bulgaria), a party affiliated to the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), made it plain that Bulgaria's current commissioner, Meglena Kuneva, would not be nominated by his government for a seat in the new Commission.
He said he will announce Bulgaria's candidacy later, and indicated that Kuneva's main "handicap" was not its Liberal affiliation, but the fact that she had maintained her silence over the "catastrophic" politics of the former Bulgarian government, in which her party was a junior partner.
"She has been too much of a partisan candidate, bound by party discipline, and her silence was conveying the message that the triple coalition was the right one for the country," Borissov said.
The former government was a coalition led by the Socialist party, with junior partners the NDSV party established by former infant king Simeon II, of which Kuneva is a member, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, consisting mainly of Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity. Both NDSV and DPS are ALDE-affiliated.
Borissov also said the next Bulgarian commissioner will be a woman.
The Bulgarian press is speculating that Rumiana Jeleva, current foreign minister and a former MEP with connections to the regional policy committee, will be the government's nominee (see EurActiv 07/07/09).
According to procedure, countries submit candidates, and the Commission president decides on portfolios. However, several countries also indicate prefereces for the portfolio (see EurActiv 01/09/09).
José Manuel Barroso was recently confirmed by the European Parliament for a second consecutive mandate at the European Commission's helm, and he is now awaiting the results of the second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty before putting together his new team of commissioners (EurActiv 16/09/09).
Boïko Borissov s'est entretenu avec Georgi Gotev.
