Bulgaria's former President Petar Stoyanov will probably lead the ticket of his party at the first elections for MEPs in the country to be held next May.

The Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) will reap adequate electoral support to have "a solid presentation" in the European Parliament, Stoyanov declared on at the party's 17th birthday.

Bulgarian government agreed Wednesday to elect the country's 18 new full-fledged MEPs by mid-May 2007. Currently the country has 18 observers to the European Parliament.

The official celebration on Thursday exposed once again the deep gap of various right-wing factions as Ivan Kostov, former leader of the party and diehard rightist chief, did not appear to chin-chin.

On December 7, 1989 the Union of Democratic Forces raised blue-colour flags and rode on the wave of democracy in Bulgaria. The organization coalesced a dozen democratic factions and clubs mushrooming after the fall of communism on November 10, 1989.

First chairman of UDF's coordination body was Zhelyu Zhelev, who later was Bulgaria' first democratically elected President (1991-1997).

In February 1997, amid the winter of mounting inflation and bank crisis in Bulgaria, UDF transformed into a party. Ivan Kostov was then elected its chairman.

The Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) was adopted in the ranks of the European Christian Democratic Union in April 1997, the European People's Party in March 1998 and the European Democratic Union in April 1998.

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