Meglena Kuneva

Meglena Shtilianova Kuneva (Меглена Щилиянова Кунева; born 22 June 1957) is a Bulgarian and EU politician.

Early life and education
Born in Sofia, Kuneva is descended from a Catholic family from the town of Rakovski. She graduated in Law from Sofia University in 1981, and in 1984 she became a Doctor of Law. She worked as a journalist for the Law Programme of the Bulgarian National Radio while being an Assistant Professor at Sofia University. As an anchor, she participated in various campaigns related ti human rights, such as the abolition of the death penalty, which still existed at that time in the country.

In 1990 she took a job as Senior Legal Advisor at the Council of Ministers and held it until 2001. In the meantime Kuneva specialized in Foreign Affairs and Environmental Law at Georgetown University and the University of Oxford.

Career in national politics
In June 2001 Kuneva was elected a deputy (Member of Bulgarian Parliament) as a founding member of the Liberal Simeon II National Movement (NDSV) party. In August 2001 Kuneva left her position in the Bulgarian parliament because she was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chief Negotiator of the Republic of Bulgaria with the European Union. She represented the Bulgarian Government in the Convention on the Future of Europe (the European Convention), which designed the EU Constitutional Treaty (the European Constitution).

In May 2002 Kuneva was appointed Bulgaria's first Minister of European Affairs in the government of former Tsar Simeon Sakskoburggotski. She held that job even after the 2005 parliamentary elections, when NDSV became a junior partner in the Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated coalition government of Sergey Stanishev – the only minister of the former cabinet to retain her post.

European Commissioner for Consumer Protection
On 26 October 2006 Kuneva was nominated to be Bulgaria's first member of the European Commission. European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso assigned her the portfolio of Consumer Protection. Kuneva was decisively approved by the European Parliament on 12 December 2006 with 583 votes "in favour", 21 votes "against" and 28 votes "abstentions". She commenced her mandate as EU Commissioner on 1 January 2007, when Bulgaria officially joined the EU. On 22 January 2007 Meglena Kuneva took an Oath as a European Commissioner at the European Court in Luxembourg.

During her term in office, Kuneva was interested in online data collection (of personal data), profiling and behavioral targeting, and in particular is looking for "enforcing existing regulation on the Internet and to regulate where adequate response to consumer concerns on the issue of data collection".

Return to national politics
In 2012 Kuneva ran as an independent presidential candidate, getting 14% of the votes.

Later that year she founded a political party Bulgaria for Citizens movement, which in 2014 secured places in the parliaments as part of the bigger right centrist alliance Reformist bloc. Kuneva was elected member of parliament and then became a Deputy Prime Minister, resposnible for foreign affairs, regugee agency and data protectio unit. She also had an oversight of the human trafficking commission and the newly created anticorruoption body.

In early 2016 Kuneva took over the Ministry of Education and Science in a time the education system in Bulgaria was going though an overreaching reform.

Council of Europe
In 2018 Kuneva was appointed Head of the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe, where she collaborated to establish a common European stance in conjunction with the Council of Europe and optimal coordination between the two organizations.

In 2024, Kuneva was her country’s candidate to succeed Dunja Mijatović as the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights; in a vote by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, she ultimately lost against Michael O'Flaherty.

Other activities

 * European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member
 * Vick Foundation, Member of the Jury for the 2008 Bulgarian Novel of the Year

Political positions
In October 2013, Kuneva announced her opposition to the ban on land sale to foreigners that was voted by the Bulgarian Parliament. This closely matches the stand the European Commission has taken on the matter.

In December 2013 she said that "she felt more pity than anger toward" Plamen Oresharski because he is not the real decision maker in the Council of Ministers.

Personal life
Meglena Kuneva is married to financier Andrey Pramov, a son of the secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party (1962–1978), and they have one son – Aleksandar. Her parents had to face the repercussions of communist repression. Kuneva's paternal grandfather, a royal officer named Georgi Kunev, was ousted from his position and essentially targeted as an enemy of the regime, ending up in a camp. On the other hand, her maternal uncle, a lawyer with a degree from the Sorbonne, had to navigate rehabilitation proceedings under the 1991 Law for the Repressed. This followed his time in the Belene camp and the loss of his legal rights during the era of the communist regime.

In addition to her native Bulgarian, she is fluent in English, French, and Russian. Kuneva's hobby is listening to classical music.