Bulgaria's Georgieva Takes over European Commissioner Baton

“The real work starts from today,” the new Bulgarian European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday, a day after quitting as Vice-President of the World Bank. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria's new European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva took over from her predecessor Meglena Kuneva on Tuesday at a short meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Kuneva thanked the attending Bulgarian MEPs for the joint work and wished luck to her successor.

“The real work starts from today,” the new Bulgarian European Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said on Tuesday, a day after quitting as Vice-President of the World Bank.

She announced she plans to head for the earthquake-torn Haiti at the end of the month after the meeting of the European Foreign Ministers, due on February 22.

According to her the aim of the visit will be to coordinate the actions of the different partners,the EU, UN and US in particular.

Georgieva also assigned priority to the establishment of better coordination in the field of civil defense across the bloc in terms of legislation.

Meanwhile Meglena Kuneva refused to say whether she will be dropping the curtain of her Brussels career after the end of her mandate as European Commissioner.

"When you have been elected Commissioner and Eureopan of the year, it is very important that you choose carefully your next step,” Kuneva told reporters when asked about her future plans.

According to unconfirmed reports the Commission President José Manuel Barroso will appoint Kuneva as head of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA), the in-house Commission think-tank.

It is believed that Barroso wishes to make BEPA a more political animal, and installing Kuneva as chief would not only give the think-tank increased prominence and executive leadership – it currently has no acting boss – but would also allow Barroso to exert increased control over emerging policy prescriptions.

Despite being widely regarded as successful in handling her consumer affairs portfolio, Kuneva was never likely to be reappointed following the massive electoral success of new Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov in the 2009 national and European elections.

Borissov hails from a different political party to Kuneva and said from the start that she had no chance.

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