Brussels, 01/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - This summer will be very busy for the president-designate of the new European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, because after the deadline set for member states to come up with candidate(s) for the European Commission, he has a number of tricky problems to sort out relating to the number of female commissioners and the fact that a number of member states are going for the same jobs at the Commission.
On 1 August, the configuration of Juncker's new team was still a little vague. One thing is certain - three women have been officially fielded so far, including Federica Mogherini of Italy, whom the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, is still hoping to see in the post of EU High Representative. Mogherini will join two other women designated earlier in the week, Vera Jourova of the Czech Republic and Cecilia Malmström of Sweden. Mogherini is Italy's foreign minister. On 16 July, she was backed by a number of member states (including France and Germany) to replace Catherine Ashton, but eastern European countries oppose this appointment.
In the evening of Thursday 31 July, Poland formally chose its new commissioner and is demanding the job of EU high representative for its nominee, foreign affairs minister Radoslaw Sikorski. This was confirmed by the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, although Poland is also interested in other jobs, such as that of energy commissioner.
Romania has chosen the current agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos and, against all expectations, Portugal has chosen Carlos Moedas. The Portuguese media had placed its bets on a woman, finance minister Maria Luis Albuquerque, and the appointment of a man makes Juncker's life more difficult. Moedas, an engineer, was involved in the introduction of the troika's structural adjustment plan for Portugal from May 2011 to May 2014.
And to complicate matters even more, two countries have not informed Juncker of their choice, namely Belgium (which is not planning to do so for another fortnight when the new government is formalised) and Bulgaria, which is reported to be undecided about re-appointing Kristalina Georgieva unless she gets the job of EU high representative.
The remaining piece of the jigsaw is that four member states sent the names of the people they want as commissioners to Juncker on 1 August, but have not made the names public, namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Cyprus. Juncker's spokesman said these countries have proposed one or more names. Juncker will no doubt be insisting that they anominate women. Otherwise, he may ask countries that have already put forward a male candidate to come up with a woman instead.
This scenario does not seem very likely and Juncker's spokesman refused to comment on it. In the past, it has been the European Parliament that has officially rejected candidates, such as Italy's Rocco Buttiglione in 2004 or Bulgaria's Roumiana Jeleva in 2009. However, the new Commission currently stands at three women and, in order to be credible, Juncker wants at least nine women. He will therefore have his work cut out for him to find another six women before mid-September, when he is hoping to present his final team to the world.
There are six countries that might propose a woman - Bulgaria, Belgium, Slovenia, Denmark, Cyprus and the Netherlands - but two men seem close to being designated, namely the current head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem (of the Netherlands) and Belgian foreign minister Didier Reynders, which would potentially leave only seven women. This raises the question of whether the European Parliament would go along with fewer women but higher-ranking politicians, with11 countries sending current ministers and Finland even sending its prime minister, or people who have only recently left office. Martin Schulz answered no to this question in July. Asked about this on 1 August, Juncker's spokesman's team would not comment on whether Juncker would be meeting Schulz in person to discuss the matter. On 15 July, just after his election, Juncker said that he could meet the president of the European Parliament in early August to discuss membership of the new Commission.
Twenty-one official candidates, eleven of them ministers or former ministers
So far, 21 countries have officially designated candidates (22 if one includes Juncker for Luxembourg): Radoslaw Sikorski from Poland (EPP), Dacian Ciolos from Romania (EPP), Carlos Moedas from Portugal (EPP), Federica Mogherini from Italy (PES), Jyrki Katainen from Finland (EPP), Günther Oettinger from Germany (EPP), Johannes Hahn from Austria (EPP), Valdis Dombrovskis from Latvia (EPP), Phil Hogan from Ireland (EPP), Maros Sefcovic from Slovakia (PES), Neven Mimica from Croatia (PES), Vytenis Andriukaitis from Lithuania (PES), Karmenu Vella from Malta (PES), Andrus Ansip from Estonia (ALDE), Vera Jourova from the Czech Republic (ALDE), Jonathan Hill from the United Kingdom (ECR), Dimitris Avramopoulos from Greece (EPP), Cecilia Malmström from Sweden (ADLE), Pierre Moscovici from France (PES), Miguel Arias Canete from Spain (EPP) and Tibor Navracsics from Hungary (EPP).
Eleven candidates are from the EPP, six from the PES, three from the ALDE and one in the ECR. Twelve of the candidates so far are ministers or former ministers. For the countries that have not yet decided, Kristalina Georgieva has been mentioned for Bulgaria (along with Kristian Vigenin); for the Netherlands, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Frans Timmermans and cooperation minister Liliane Ploumen. For Belgium, Marianne Thyssen, Didier Reynders and Karel de Gucht. For Denmark, Margrethe Verstager, Christine Antorini, Karen Angelo Haekkerup, Morten Bodskov and Mette Gjerskov. For Slovenia, former prime minister Alenka Bratusek is mentioned, along with others. For Cyprus, the name of MEP Christos Stylianides has been mentioned. (SP)