Jeleva resigns before being pushed
Bulgarian nominee for the European Commission withdraws.
Rumiana Jeleva has today withdrawn her candidacy to become a member of the next European Commission.
She has resigned her current position, as Bulgaria’s foreign minister.
José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, who had stood by Jeleva’s nomination and put out a statement in her support only last Friday, said that he “fully respected” what he described as Jeleva’s “personal decision” to withdraw.
Jeleva, a vice-president of the centre-right European People’s Party, had been the subject of fierce criticism since a poor performance at her nomination hearing in front of MEPs last Tuesday (12 January), raising fears that she was not up to the job as European commissioner for international co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response.
She was accused of having misrepresented her ownership of a consulting firm while serving as an MEP in 2007-09, though Barroso said last week that her declaration of financial interests was in order.
Barroso this morning welcomed “the swift reaction” of Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who had informed him of his intention to nominate as a replacement Kristalina Georgieva, who is a vice-president of the World Bank.
“The process of the investiture of the new Commission should now continue and be concluded at the earliest opportunity,” Barroso’s statement added.
Fact File
Jeleva’s replacement
Bulgaria’s intended replacement for Rumiana Jeleva is Kristalina Georgieva, currently a vice-president of the World Bank.
Georgieva, whom Commission President José Manuel Barroso intends to meet “as soon as possible”, has worked at the World Bank since 1993, working primarily on environmental matters and issues of sustainable development. Her move to the bank followed an international career as an academic and consultant on development issues.
(Article continues below the picture.)
Initially charged with managing World Bank projects in central and eastern Europe, she later worked on development projects for eastern Asia and the Pacific. She served as the World Bank’s director for the environment in 2000-04, a position that gave her responsibility for strategy and the management of a loan portfolio totalling more than $11 billion (€7.7bn). She then moved on to become the bank’s country director for Russia until 2007. She took over responsibility for strategy and operations in the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Network in 2007.
Bulgarian media report Borisov as saying that Georgieva has for some time served him as an informal adviser on economic matters. The Bulgarian media have in the past reported speculation that Georgieva would be invited into government as deputy prime minister.
Click Here: Maori All Blacks Store