21/03/2022 (Agence Europe) – The EPP group in the European Parliament announced on Monday 21 March that it had sent a fact-finding mission to Sofia, Bulgaria, following the detention of former Bulgarian Prime Minister and leader of the EPP’s GERB party, Boyko Borissov. Mr Borissov, former Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov and the party’s press officer were arrested on 17 March and released without charge. The arrests were part of a major operation by the Bulgarian section of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, from the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, and Dutch MEP Jeroen Lenaers, from the Committee on Civil Liberties, will lead the mission. In particular, they asked to meet with the Bulgarian Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior and the Bulgarian Prosecutor General’s Office. Manfred Weber, the group’s leader, expressed great concern over the arrest and the reasons given by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. (SP)