INSEAD professor Ilian Mihov will not be appointed to a Cabinet position, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov told reporters during his visit to Turkey on January 30 2010, Bulgarian media reported.

Borissov made the comment a day after Mihov said that he would like to see his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister without portfolio postponed until the moment when Bulgaria joined the euro zone's "waiting room", the ERM2 (exchange rate mechanism 2).

Mihov said in an interview with bTV that his appointment could wait for the moment when Bulgaria joined the ERM2.

After Mihov's statement, Borissov said that at this stage there was no need for any further changes to the Cabinet after the appointment of Nikolai Mladenov as Foreign Minister and Anyo Angelov as Defence Minister. The appointments of Mladenov and Angelov were approved by Parliament on January 27 2010.

"Making changes to my team is my business," Borissov said in Istanbul. "My Government is doing well and I see no reason to make changes," he said.

Mihov, who is a renowned macro-economist, was named as a future Cabinet appointee by Borissov on January 20 2010. At the time, Borissov did not specify Mihov's precise position but said that Mihov had been one of his closest economy advisers.

Borissov said that he needed better co-ordination in his Cabinet when it came to the country's economy, which was why he needed another macro-economist on his team.

On January 21 2010, Borissov said that Mihov would be appointed Deputy Prime Minister without portfolio. However, because of Mihov’s professional engagements, the appointment would wait until sometime in the spring.

The notion of promoting Mihov to a Cabinet position drew controversial reactions from Borissov’s opposition in Parliament and from his allies, the right-wing Blue Coalition.

Some doubted Mihov’s professional experience in dealing with public finance, while others feared that his views might affect the currency board which was introduced in 1997.
A reason for the latter was a September 2009 interview Mihov gave to Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily where he suggested the idea of a modified currency board arrangement. 

After controversy ensued because of his statement about the currency board, Mihov repeatedly said that it had been just an idea, and not one that he would pursue at any cost, especially if the public did not approve of it.