Bulgaria is among the latest countries to take a reserved approach to backing European Commission President Jose Barroso’s candidacy for a second term.
 
Around the June 4 to 7 2009 European Parliament elections, and especially after the results gave centre-right parties a majority, it had seemed that Barroso’s bid was close to a certainty.
 
The European Council of heads of state and government will meet on June 18 and 19, a meeting at which a legally binding recommendation would virtually ensure a second term for Barroso.
 
But now a number of countries have taken a cooler approach.
 
DPA reported from Luxembourg on June 15 that Austrian foreign minister Michael Spindelegger had said that the European Council would make a "political announcement" but would stop short of legally-binding backing.
 
"We need consultations with the (European) Parliament. Later, there should be a confirmatory signal (from EU leaders) and then a decision from the Parliament," probably when it holds its first session in mid-July, Spindelegger said.
 
Significantly, Germany and France, powerful voices in the EU, also are said not to want Barroso’s nomination to be approved before it becomes clear what will happen about the Lisbon Treaty.
 
Reports have suggested that the moves by Germany and France are designed as bargaining leverage to secure portfolios that they want on the new EC.
 
Ivailo Kalfin, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and an MEP-elect, said that Bulgaria had not yet decided whether to back Barroso formally.
 
In an interview with mass-circulation daily Trud, Kalfin said that while Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev had publicly supported Barroso, this did not necessarily mean that this was Bulgaria’s final opinion.
 
It is not yet clear who Bulgaria will nominate as a European Commissioner. Meglena Kouneva, currently a European Commissioner, has also won election as an MEP but has not said whether she will choose to be available to be a candidate commissioner or will take up her seat in the European Parliament. Other names that have been mentioned as a possible candidate commissioner include that of Kalfin.