Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asked member countries to present candidates — a man and a woman — for her next European Commission, as her team emphasised she was seeking gender balance.
Von der Leyen gave member nations until August 30 to reply to her letter, so she could make her options and have them undergo verification hearings in the European Parliament in September and October. Last week — when the EU parliament approved von der Leyen for a second five-year appointment following EU elections held in June — the EU Commission president stated she was repeating the process employed for her current, outgoing group of commissioners.
How will the new commission candidates be vetted?
In her letter, she stated she would ask capitals to put forward “a man and a woman as nominees” so she could interview them in mid-August and push her pick. “Once again, I will aim for an equal share of men and women at the… table,” she stated.
The only exception to that, she stated, was if an EU country was renominating a present commissioner. Each of the EU’s 27 member countries conveys to have a commissioner. Von der Leyen, a German, fills her country’s position. EU leaders have already called Estonian former prime minister Kaja Kallas as their choice for the bloc’s foreign policy chief, who also sits as an EU Commission vice president.
It was not sure, though, that all other member nations were going to comply with von der Leyen’s direction. Ireland, for instance, has already put forward just one candidate — a man: former finance minister Michael McGrath.
EU Commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta refused to be drawn into what von der Leyen might do if her two-candidate demand was dismissed. “I will not speculate further on what will happen further in the process and hypothetical scenarios,” Podesta said. It’s a request concerning an aim to have gender equality… and I think it’s fairly clear what she’s aiming at,” she expressed.
How are member states responding to von der Leyen’s nomination request?
Some governments have indicated they desire their current commissioners to stay on.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated in late June he would like EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton to stay. But with France’s subsequent government post-July elections not yet decided, it was ambiguous whether that choice falls to Macron or his future prime minister.
EU treaties do not direct member countries to offer more than one candidate for the commission, though they do express their choice needs the arrangement of the commission president. If Kallas is verified as commission vice president, four out of five of the European Union’s most significant and high-profile posts will be filled by women.
Von der Leyen is chief of the incoming EU Commission; Malta’s Roberta Metsola remains on as speaker of the European Parliament; Christine Lagarde of France is already chair of the European Central Bank; and Kallas would serve the vice president/high representative job.
The fifth post — that of European Council president, who heads summits of EU leaders — has already been chosen, and from December will be ex-Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa, man.
