EU Commissioner for Innovation leaves to form Bulgarian government

The European Union Commissioner for Research and Innovation Mariya Gabriel has resigned from her EU post as she takes on the task of forming a new Bulgarian coalition government.

Politico writes about this.

Last week, the leader of her party Boyko Borissov chose Gabriel as Bulgaria's next prime minister. On Monday, Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev gave her an institutional mandate to form a government.

The Bulgarian center-right politician, Mariya Gabriel, joined the EU executive as Commissioner for Digital Affairs in 2017 and took over the portfolio of research, innovation, education and culture at the beginning of the current mandate, in 2019.

Her track record in Brussels was ambiguous — she had a reputation as a young, dynamic commissioner with a sincere passion for technological progress and a lack of authority to advance her agenda.

In her statement, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she accepted the resignation and thanked Gabriel for her "constructive and friendly contribution" to the work of the Commission.

"I wish Mariya Gabriel all the best and I am sure that her European experience will be useful for the country," she said.

Gabriel's work will be continued by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager and Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, while Vestager will oversee innovation and research issues, and Schinas will deal with education and culture issues.

Mariya Gabriel has seven days, until May 22, to form a government headed by her center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria Party (GERB), part of the EU-wide European People's Party (EPP). The political deadlock after five consecutive elections in two years has not led to the formation of a stable coalition.

Otherwise, the second largest parliamentary group, the alliance of two anti-corruption parties We Continue the Change (PP) and Democratic Bulgaria (DB), will receive the initiative to form a coalition.