Member of the Bulgarian National Assembly and Foreign Minister of Bulgaria Nadezhda Mihaylova was a member of the
Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) until she left in November 2012 after 21 years of membership in the party. She was
elected to sit the 37th National Assembly (1995–1997). During this time she sat on the Foreign Affairs Committee and was member of the Bulgarian delegation to the Council of Europe. She was also chairman of the Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations Assembly (1994–1997) and the vice-president of the Union of Democratic Forces. She was
reelected in 1997 and sat in the 38th National Assembly (1997–2001). She was appointed
Minister of Foreign Affairs in
Ivan Kostov's
government and held that post for four years. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, she strongly supported a policy of NATO integration and EU membership of her country. In February 1999, she was chosen as the deputy chairman of the
European People's Party at the 13th Congress in
Brussels, becoming the first person from Eastern Europe to hold this position. In March 2000, as the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Mihaylova denied having delivered a document showing an alleged plan of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic aimed at ethnic cleansing of Kosovo (
Operation Horseshoe) to the then foreign minister of Germany,
Joschka Fischer, in April 1999. In 2012, however, Mihaylova finally admitted to private Bulgarian channel BTV that she had handed the document regarding the
Operation Horseshoe to the German foreign minister. During the 78-day
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, in April 1999, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair travelled to Sofia praising Nadezhda Mihaylova commitment with the words: "You, Nadezhda, have become the symbol of the wider Europe – of a whole Europe – a Europe of solidarity." As an MP in the 39th National Assembly (2001–2005), she was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee on National Security and Defence. She was elected chairman of the United Democratic Forces in 2002. Mihaylova's tenure as UDF leader saw an unprecedented attrition of public support for her party which diminished UDF's political position to not much more than a marginal political player. Many blamed Mihaylova's leadership style for the downfall of her party. One of her most outspoken critics was
Edvin Sugarev who in April 2003 accused the UDF leadership of lack of political strategy and political impotence.In protest, Sugarev resigned from his position in the party's National Executive Council.[https://www.dnevnik.bg/bulgaria/2002/09/10/129900_edvin_sugarev_napusna_nis/ In the 2003 local elections Mihaylova ran for the Mayor of Sofia. Mihaylova made a pledge to resign as the UDF chairwoman in case she loses the mayoral election. She lost, but reneged on her pledge and stayed on as the UDF leader. After the disappointing local elections of 2003, a rift broke between her and the former PM Ivan Kostov in the party. In 2004, 29 UDF delegates (led by Kostov) left to form a new party,
Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria. After the disappointing
2005 parliamentary election, with her party finishing fifth, she was succeeded by former
president Petar Stoyanov as the chairman of the party.
Member of the European Parliament In the
2009 European parliamentary election Neynsky was elected as the SDS candidate. Since then she has been a member of the
European People's Party (
Bulgarian: Hristyandemokrati). As an MEP she sat on the
Committee on Budgets and was the Co-Resident on Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). She was also a member of the Delegation to the EU-Russia and a member of the Delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. She served as a Deputy on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, a Deputy on the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and a substitute member of the Delegation for relations with Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union. In May 2012, she founded, together with the Austrian MEP
Paul Rübig and the Danish MEP
Bendt Bendtsen, a new organization called
SME Europe. This pro-business organization within the
European People's Party, aims at improving the situation of small and medium-sized enterprises all across Europe. Currently, she holds the position of President. She was vice-president of the Union of SMEs to the European People's Party from 2007 to 2011 and vice-president of the European People's Party.
Other fields of politics Speaking in 2016 to a newspaper about a role model as a leader, she revealed her admiration for former US Secretary of State,
Madeleine Albright. Nadezhda Neynski was the Ambassador of Bulgaria to Turkey from 2015 to 2021.
Outside politics She was chairman of the Board of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in
Bulgaria in 2007. She was also a member of the Advisory Group of the Southern Leaders' Round Tables (SLRT) to the Special Branch Cooperation among Developing Countries (Special Unit for South-South Cooperation) in 2006. She is a member of the International Advisory Committee to the "Democracy Coalition Project", in partnership with the Foundation "Bertelsmann", organization "Freedom House" and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (2006). President of the Institute for Democracy and Stability in Southeast Europe (2004). She became a member of the National Union of Civil Society UNITY of 8 December 2012. == Awards ==