Mariya Gabriel

Mariya Gabriel
Mariya Ivanova Gabriel (née Nedelcheva, ; born 20 May 1979) is a Bulgarian politician and a member of the GERB party, serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2023. She served as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth between December 2019 and May 2023 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2017.
In the European Parliament she served as Vice-President of the European People's Party (EPP) group, Vice-President of EPP Women and head of the Bulgarian EPP delegation. She was first appointed to the European Commission in 2017 as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society to fill a spot left vacant by the departure of Kristalina Georgieva. Ms Gabriel left with a mixed record and reputation in Brussels. In particular, she struggled to realize a €415 billion plan to make the EU a global tech hub.
On 22 May 2023, a coalition of GERB and We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) agreed to form a government with two rotating prime ministers, Nikolai Denkov and Gabriel.
Education
Mariya Gabriel was born on 20 May 1979 in Hadzhidimovo, Blagoevgrad region. In 1997, she graduated from the Dr Petar Beron language high school in Kyustendil. In 2001 she graduated from the Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski". She continued her studies at the Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux (Institute of Political Studies) in Bordeaux (France), where she obtained a master's degree in 'Comparative Politics and International Relations'. From 2004 to 2008, Mariya Gabriel was a teaching and research assistant at the Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux (France). Her teaching assignment was related to the topics of the Decision-Making process in the EU, Political Sociology and International Relations.
Member of the European Parliament
Vice-President of the EPP Group and Head of the Bulgarian delegation of the EPP Group
From 2014 to 2017, Mariya Gabriel was Vice-President of the EPP Group and Head of the Bulgarian delegation in the EPP Group. As Vice-President of the EPP Group she chaired the Euromed Working Group of the EPP and was responsible for maintaining the EPP Group's relations with countries from the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa regions.
Committee Work
As member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Mariya Gabriel focused her activities on the migration policy of the European Union, Schengen, visa liberalisation agreements with third countries, security issues, the fight against terrorism and human trafficking. She followed closely topics related to FRONTEX and the Entry-Exit System of the EU.
In the Foreign Affairs Committee Mariya Gabriel's focus was on the Mediterranean countries, and relations between the EU and Africa, the Middle East and the countries from the Arab Peninsula. She was a negotiator of the EPP Group on a regular basis for resolutions related to human rights violations, democracy and the rule of law. She upheld the need for improved consistency of the foreign and internal policies of the EU, conflict prevention and conflict resolution, migration and security, economic links, and development policy.
From 2012 until 2014 Mariya Gabriel was a coordinator of the EPP Group in the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee. She was the rapporteur of the European Parliament on the proposed Women on Boards directive.
During the 2009–2014 legislature Mariya Gabriel was a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and was actively working on the reform of the new EU common agricultural policy (CAP) for the 2014–2020 period. As part of her work, she defended the principles of a fair, flexible and simplified agricultural policy.
From 2014 to 2017, Mariya Gabriel was President of the Working Group on Apiculture and Bee Health. In 2015 and 2016 she organised the European Week of Bees and Pollination in the European Parliament. In 2016 Albert II, Prince of Monaco, was a keynote speaker.
Mariya Gabriel worked on the Danube Strategy as a strategically important topic for the EU. It is a strategy for the Danube macro-region, which covers nine Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) and 5 non-EU states (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova).
EU foreign policy
From 2009 Mariya Gabriel was an active member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, which brings together parliamentarians from the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Union. In 2011 she was Head of the EU Election Observation Mission for the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2016 Mariya Gabriel led the EU Election Observation Mission for the presidential elections in Gabon.
European Commission
On 10 May 2017 Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, announced that Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had nominated Mariya Gabriel to replace Kristalina Georgieva as Commissioner.
President Juncker appointed Günther Oettinger to replace Georgieva as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, leaving Gabriel with the digital portfolio Oettinger had previously headed.
In 2019, Ursula von der Leyen nominated Gabriel to be European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.
On 10 May 2023 GERB announced that their PM nominee was Mariya Gabriel. President Radev gave her the first mandate to try to form a government on 15 May that same year. In this way Gabriel resigned to her job as European Commissioner.
Scandal
In 2017, in the midst of her candidacy as EU commissioner, Bulgarian reporters discovered that she was renting a plush apartment from the municipality in the upscale Lozenets district of Sofia for just €200 a month — about a quarter of the market rate. Bulgaria's anti-corruption commission (the Commission for Countering Corruption and Forfeiture of Illegally Acquired Property) was tipped off that Gabriel rented a municipal housing in October 2010 while she was a MEP. The difference between the market rental price of about €800 on average and the rent paid by Gabriel for 32 months, amounts to nearly €20,000. The commission indeed found a signed rental agreement from 1 October 2010 to 11 April 2012.
The deal was allegedly brokered by the center-right GERB party, which controls the Sofia Municipality and owns the apartment. Gabriel failed to disclose the discount in her declaration of interests in 2012 and 2014, which she was required to complete as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). The preferential rental agreement was also missing from the declaration of financial interests she submitted for the job as head of the European Commission’s digital economy and society portfolio. Three cabinet ministers resigned in 2019 with similar accusations.
Personal life
She is married to François Gabriel. The couple has one child.
Prizes and awards
2013 'MEP of the year' Award in the 'Gender Equality category;
2015 Award of The European Association of Communications Agencies for her achievements in relations to gender equality and women's rights;
2016 "MEP of the year" Award in the Development category;
2016 Order of San Carlos from the Government of Colombia for outstanding contribution to the nation of Colombia in the area of international relations and diplomacy;
References
External links
Mariya Gabriel – European Commission website
Mariya Gabriel - Open Access Government Prestige Contributor
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1979 births
Bulgarian political scientists
Women MEPs for Bulgaria
GERB MEPs
Living people
MEPs for Bulgaria 2009–2014
MEPs for Bulgaria 2014–2019
People from Gotse Delchev
Bulgarian European Commissioners
European Commissioners 2014–2019
European Commissioners 2019–2024
Women political scientists
Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux alumni
Deputy prime ministers of Bulgaria
Female foreign ministers
Foreign ministers of Bulgaria
Women government ministers of Bulgaria