site.btaVelislava Petrova - Chamova: Minister of Foreign Affairs

Velislava Petrova has been proposed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the draft Cabinet of Rumen Radev. 

Velislava Petrova was born in Sandanski (Southwestern Bulgaria) in June 1990. She earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology from Bristol University and a doctor's degree in infectious diseases from Cambridge University. She then worked for UNAIDS on healthcare innovations for the Global South, and during the COVID-19 pandemic she was senior manager at the Global Vaccine Allinace, taking part in the development of investment strategies for control of emerging pathogens. She also acted as a consultant for the World Health Organization and an expert for the World Bank Group on biotechnologies and disaster risk management (2020-2021).

In 2022-2023, Dr Petrova was deputy foreign minister in the Kiril Petkov Government and in the two caretaker cabinets headed by Galab Donev, where she was in charge of European affairs, regional policy, economic diplomacy and development aid, multilateral organization relations, bilateral diplomacy with the countries of Asia and Africa, and consular matters.

In this capacity, she represented Bulgaria at the EU General Affairs Council and performed Sherpa functions at European Council meetings. She chaired the Coordination Mechanism for Bulgaria's accession to the OECD and participated in the negotiations with the European Commission on EU enlargement and Bulgaria's admission to Schengen.

Since March 2024, she has been Chief Programme Officer at the Brussels-based Centre for Future Generations, coordinating the organization's work in European policies with a focus on EU competitiveness, Europe's strategic autonomy in AI and defence technologies, and building partnerships between EU institutions, academe and industry.