Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov began a two-day working visit to France on October 12 2009, with meetings scheduled with president Nicolas Sarkozy and prime minister Francois Fillon.
 
Borissov is also to meet members of the Bulgarian community in Paris.
 
The Bulgarian delegation includes Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov, Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva and Defence Minister Nikolai Mladenov.
 
Marin Raikov, Deputy Foreign Minister and a former ambassador in Paris, said in an interview with Bulgarian news agency Focus that Borissov’s visit to France was "crucial for Bulgaria" and was in keeping with the bilateral relations that were elevated in 2008 to a strategic partnership.
 
Raikov said that the issues to be discussed would be those set out in the strategic partnership charter in 2008, including economic co-operation, politics, transport cooperation, energy and others.
 
Previously, Bulgarian media reports said that Borissov would be lobbying Sarkozy for support for Bulgaria’s nomination of Zheleva as  European Commissioner on energy.
 
On October 10, Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa, in a story headlined The French Connection, came up with a list of items that it said that Borissov and Sarkozy had in common. These were that both were former mayors, both former heads of police, both insisting on healthy lifestyles and keep-fit regimes and both had previous marriages.