EP Vice-President Backs Bulgaria's Georgieva as Foreign Policy Chief

EU Parliament's Vice-President from the Greens, Ulrike Lunacek. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Green European Parliament Vice-President Ulrike Lunacek has said the Bulgarian EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva is "best suited" to become the next EU's High Representative.

Lunacek has called on EU leaders to pick Georgieva, presently holding the humanitarian affairs portfolio, as a successor of Catherine Ashton, the outgoing foreign policy chief (or High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as the office is fully titled).

Georgieva has played an "extraordinary role" in her capacity as the commissioner responsible for international cooperation, aid and crisis response, Lunacek said in an interview with the Austrian Press Agency (APA) cited by the websites EurActiv and Dnevnik.bg.

The Green MEP added unlike Ashton, who has "not really been at home in the world of foreign policy," Georgieva was "at home in this world".

She argued experience, competence and connections were qualities that the EU's next top diplomat needed.

The name of Ashton's successor is due to be discussed at an EU summit on July 16. Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski has announced he is to put forward a Bulgarian candidacy in Brussels, without elaborating further.

EurActiv, on the other hand, quotes Oresharski as saying we would rather "get orientations" and exchange views with the next EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Apart from Georgieva, Italy's Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini has also been among likely candidates.

Earlier this week a French journalist hinted that Kristalina Georgieva could take the post.

But some Bulgarian media mention the name of ruling socialists' leader Sergey Stanishev as a potential candidate to be proposed by the government.

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