Analysis

Bulgarian Lilyana Pavlova appointed vice president of European Investment Bank

Lilyana Pavlova has been appointed as the new vice president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She is the first Bulgarian to join the EU bank’s management committee.

A doctor of economics, Mrs Pavlova was appointed by the EIB’s board of governors at the proposal of the Bulgarian finance minister and with the agreement of EIB shareholders Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. She succeeds Vazil Hudák, whose mandate as vice president ended at the end of October.

Prior to her appointment, Pavlova held various public functions in Bulgaria, both in government and parliament. She has been a member of the Bulgarian government since 2009, first as a deputy minister and then twice as minister of regional development, the first woman to hold this function in Bulgaria.

From May 2017 to December 2018, she was minister for the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, the first time that the country held the rotating presidency. As such, she was responsible for the preparatory phase and the running of the Bulgarian presidency, establishing the national programme and priorities, policy coordination, as well as relations with EU institutions.

Upon joining the EIB, Dr Pavlova said: “I am pleased to join the EU bank and to be part of an institution that fosters investments for a sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe and beyond. The EIB is a key multilateral institution, on which all EU member states rely to make a difference in terms of investments and quality of projects financed. The competitiveness, cohesion and long-term sustainability of the European economy benefit significantly from the EIB and I am delighted to be able to contribute to this success story.”