Meglena Kouneva will continue her duties as European Commissioner for consumer protection until the end of the current commission's term expires in October 2009, despite winning a seat in the European Parliament at the June 7 elections.

On July 10, Kouneva told a news conference in Sofia that she would work better on keeping up her electoral promises as a European Commissioner than an MEP, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily said.

When Kouneva won her MEP seat, she said that she would decide on her future by the time the new European Parliament stated work, hinting that was interested in a second term as commissioner.

However, her party, the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), failed to win a single seat in Parliament at the July 5 elections and Bulgaria's nomination for European Commissioner will likely be made by Boiko Borissov, the Sofia mayor widely expected to become the next prime minister.

A day after his party won the elections, Borissov said that Kouneva had made her choice by running for European Parliament and hinted that she might not be his nomination for the post of EC commissioner.

On July 10, Kouneva said that she had talked with Borissov and told him of her decision to stay on the European Commission for the remainder of its term. She said that she had not asked him to support her for a second term. "I congratulated him on the election result," she said.

"I made my decision not because of any personal ambitions and security but with the only thought of serving Bulgaria and the EC in the best possible way," she said. The other reason was that if she joined the European Parliament, Bulgaria would have been left without an European Commissioner for the month of September, which would have weakened the country's position in the Commission.

Kouneva's decision means that Stanimir Ilchev will take her place in European Parliament. Ilchev was third on the NMSP ticket, after Kouneva and Antonia Purvanova, who also won a seat.