Amid the howls of derision from opposition politicians, as well as local and foreign media, about the portfolio proposed for Roumyana Zheleva in the new European Commission, an astonishing nugget slipped out – that Zheleva, currently Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister, and Meglena Kouneva, currently the country’s European Commissioner, had never met.

This emerged in a television interview given on November 30 – four months after the Cabinet of which Zheleva is a member, took office – by Kouneva, who while refraining from commenting on Zheleva’s proposed post, said: "I like her very much and I am very sorry I have not had the chance to meet her in person".

Unlike the two previous governments, which separated the portfolios of foreign and European affairs ministers, Zheleva combines these.

This made it little wonder that, in political and media circles, several observers began speculating about what was to become of Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry, which has a number of senior vacancies, the precise figure depending on how you count them.

First, provided that the European Parliament votes in January 2010 to approve EC President Jose Barroso’s proposed new Commission, Zheleva will leave the post of Foreign Minister vacant. Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said on November 29 that he had decided already on a replacement, using the word "he" in relation to this yet-unidentified figure, while Zheleva a day later added that her successor was someone "handsome and clever". Speculation (not necessarily based on physical appearance) has centred on her current deputy, Marin Raikov, and the current Defence Minister Nikolai Mladenov, who on December 1 repeated his earlier denials that he was set for a job change.

Further, a vacancy for a deputy foreign minister was created on November 27 by the resignation of Krassimir Kostov, officially established to have been an officer with Bulgaria’s communist-era State Security.

Then there are the ambassadorial posts: from Washington and Ankara, where the Borissov Government has campaigned successfully to dislodge the incumbents it inherited from the previous administration, to Brussels, where the term of Bulgaria’s ambassador is due to expire.

On top of this, at a news conference especially called by Zheleva in an attempt to deflect criticism of the "non-job" given to her, Zheleva said that the Foreign Ministry’s structure and composition would be "optimised" to make it better suit Bulgaria’s foreign policy as an EU member state. The ministry, like others, would face a 15 per cent cut in administration.

Non-job?
In the first hours after Barroso announced that Zheleva’s portfolio was to be Commissioner for International Co-operation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Zheleva seemed adamant to portray the portfolio as a foreign policy job.

Through her, Bulgaria would have a role in building the new EU common foreign policy, she said.

Two of her predecessors as foreign minister poured scorn on this notion. Ivailo Kalfin, now a socialist MEP, said that foreign policy was held by three other commissioners, mainly the new EU foreign policy supremo Catherine Ashton. Nadezhda Mihailova-Neinski, foreign minister in the 1997-2001 right-wing government and also now an MEP, said that Zheleva’s portfolio would have "nothing to do with Bulgaria or even with Europe" but with third countries, mainly Latin America and Asia. Only Solomon Passi, foreign minister from 2001 to 2005, had a few kind words about Zheleva’s job. Foreign media listed Bulgaria among the "losers" in the allocation of portfolios.

A reading of the letter sent by Barroso to Zheleva about her proposed job, and EC documentation on the new Commission, as well as the Lisbon Treaty, makes any hope of a real role for her in shaping foreign policy somewhat slim.

Ashton, officially entitled High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, combines the former EC foreign policy and external relations portfolios. Development Commissioner-designate Andris Piebalgs will be in charge of the development component of the EuropeAid-Co-operation Office and will work "in close co-operation with the High Representative" while Stefan Fuele, assigned the Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy portfolio, also works "in close co-operation with the High Representative". That quoted phrase turns up again in regard to Zheleva’s post; answerable to her will be the directorate-general of humanitarian aid, with the civil protection units moved from the environment portfolio to Zheleva’s office.

In his letter to Zheleva, Barroso did not mention international co-operation other than to say briefly that Zheleva would be given "concrete tasks" assigned by himself or Ashton. However, he went into some detail about her being responsible for humanitarian assistance, as one of the most visible ways for the EC to carry out its global responsibilities.
Somehow, this immediately conjured up an image of Zheleva not as firefighter – critics of Borissov tried to link this image to him and to Zheleva in reference to Borissov’s earlier career – but as being in charge of decisions about the logistics of aid, to say nothing of photo-opportunities accompanying deliveries of EU aid.

At her November 30 news conference, Zheleva insisted that her job was of "exceptional political importance", and the sniping against her came either from the politically embittered, ignorant, incompetent or Eurosceptic.

The job was consistent with Bulgarian Government policy of taking on as an EU member state an enhanced role in the bloc’s foreign policy and being a key factor for stability in the region, and of restoring confidence in Bulgaria by showing serious commitment to EU international activities. The Lisbon Treaty made humanitarian aid an EU policy area, she said.

In media interviews, she said that the job was recognition for Bulgaria which had managed to carve out for itself a "very influential" portfolio.

Borissov too insisted that the portfolio was a good one. Opposition MEPs and MPs remained determinedly unpersuaded: National Movement for Stability and Progress MEP Antonia Purvanova said that all political forces should unite to pressure Barroso to give Zheleva a meaningful job.

Mihailova-Neinski quipped that perhaps Bulgaria, which was in permanent crisis, had been assessed as the biggest expert on crises; but added that it was to be hoped that the country would get some genuine political benefits and authority from the post.