Centrist Gergana Grancharova, currently serving as deputy foreign minister, will be Bulgaria's new EU-Affairs minister. File photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Gergana Grancharova, member of the ex-king party, who is currently serving as deputy foreign minister, will be Bulgaria's new EU-Affairs minister.
Plamen Panayotov, deputy chair of centrist Simeon II National Movement, broke the news in the town of Pernik, confirming earlier reports. In his words Grancharova will take over the EU affairs post "as soon as possible".
Gergana Grancharova will succeed Meglena Kuneva, who stepped into her Brussels office as EU consumer affairs commissioner at the beginning of the year when Bulgaria acceded to the European block.
At the end of December last year the issue of who will be the next EU affairs minister split Bulgaria's ruling three-party coalition.
Two candidates were reportedly vying to assume Kuneva's chair - leftist Andriana Sukova - Tosheva, executive director at the Bulgarian International Business Association (BIBA), and centrist Gergana Grancharova, Deputy Foreign Affairs minister.
Meglena Kuneva came from the centrist movement of former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg and the socialists said the new Brussels job should have satisfied the appetites of her party. As usual, the "Great Troika", made up of ruling coalition leaders, had the final say.