Monica Macovei (L) and Meglena Kuneva are pictured here at a press conference in Sofia in May 2006 in their capacity of Romania's Justice Minister and Bulgaria's EU-Affairs Minister. File photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Bulgaria's EU Commissioner for consumer protection Meglena Kuneva raised a few brows on Tuesday after deciding to "pay a tribute" to two former Romanian ministers that quit in last month's reshuffle.
The two ministers are the well known in Brussels Monica Macovei, former justice minister, and Anca Boagiu, former EU Integration minister .
" I had fruitful relations and enjoyed working with both Ministers Boagiu and Macovei in my former capacity of Bulgaria's European Integration Minister", Meglena Kuneva said in a statement.
"We have all worked very hard in the challenging pre-accession period but this happened in a spirit of solidarity and not as competitors..."
The EUexpands commented that Kuneva's stance goes against the EU Commission principles of never getting involved in EU members' domestic affairs and never commenting on individual politicians.
The commissioner spokeswoman told EUexpands that this is a personal initiative of Mrs. Kuneva, but she could not explain the reasons of it.
This is not a EU Commission reaction to the political situation in Romania, the spokeswoman also said.