Bulgarian MEP

Nikolay Barekov, a Bulgarian MEP, said on Tuesday he organized anti-government street protests in the summer of 2013 alongside now ruling GERB party of PM Boyko Borisov.

GERB, which was in opposition at the time, has openly admitted to having sent dozens of activists in front of the Parliament's building in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Bulgarian MEP Eva Paunova (EPP) has been awarded for being the "best newcomer" in the European Parliament.

In The Parliament Magazine, a Brussels-based news edition, 18 MEPs were pointed as the winners for 2015.

Nikolay Barekov, a Bulgarian MEP, is renouncing unconditional support for the parliamentary group which is centered around his own Bulgaria without Censorship party.

Barekov said in a press statement this week's votes in Parliament on the amendments to the Interior Ministry Act and the pension reform had prompted him to cause the move.

Bulgarian MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk, and fellow members from his parliamentary group ALDE, posed an enquiry to the European Commission on the effective application of the principle of free access to the labour market in the EU.

Bulgarian socialist MEP Momchil Nekov has called on the European Commission to pay more attention to the situation in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's new MEPs have cited eurozone and Schengen accession, the refugee influx, and the abolition of the progress reports of the European Commission as key priorities.

The MEPs gave a press conference Monday at the European Parliament Information Office in Bulgaria to present their agendas in the new European Parliament.

Former Bulgarian Minister of Environment Iskra Mihailova became the first Bulgarian MEP to head a committee in the European Parliament. 

On Monday she was elected chair of the Regional Policies Committee. The committee is instrumental in defining the European policies on distribution of European funds. 

Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha, former leader of the Bulgarian National Movement for Stability and Progress, and the country's ex-king, has been proposed for EU Commissioner.

Bulgarian MEP Mariya Gabriel, who won in May a second term in the European Parliament, has been elected Deputy Chair of the European People's Party (EPP) group.

The announcement was made in a message by the EPP Group on Wednesday, days after Gabriel became the head of GERB's delegation into the European Parliament.

The European People's Party and the Party of European Socialists will have to find a common language due to the makeup of the new European Parliament, according to Ivaylo Kalfin.