Bulgaria was the only European Union (EU) member that had no high-ranking officials employed at the European Commission (EC), Dnevnik daily said on October 23, quoting an own investigation on the matter.

Malta, which is the smallest member country, and Romania, which joined the EU together with Bulgaria, had one director each in the EC structure. Most recent data of the European Personnel Selection Office showed that the EC employed 135 Bulgarians as administrators on full or part-time contracts, 129 agents on temporary contracts and 11 experts on a business-trip basis, Dnevnik said.

Meanwhile, middle and high-level positions in the Commission included department heads, senior advisers, directors and general directors. The monthly wages for those positions varied between 6200 and 14 800 euro. No Bulgarian was yet occupying such a highly-paid post.

EC sources said, as quoted by Dnevnik, that the problem was the lack of well-trained applicants from Bulgaria. The prestigious positions in the Commission could not be filled through political assignments or behind-the curtain soliciting, but were subject to a long selection procedure.

First, there was a preliminary stage where the most promising candidates were selected. This was followed by a series of interviews, checks where each applicant presented education diploma and qualification certificate, human-resource consultant tests and evaluation of the management skills. The final approval was to be made by the 27 EU commissioners.