Brussels, 05/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 5 September, the future president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, submitted his list of commissioners-designate to current European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi so that the EU member states might approve the composition of his team, Juncker's spokespersons stated on Friday.
The Council will have to approve the list, as will the European Parliament - which is due to hear the candidates at the end of September. Although the candidates are now known, the allocation of portfolios will only be unveiled on Wednesday 10 September, Juncker's spokespersons stated. At this stage, his spokespersons still refuse to comment on the composition of the future Commission - or to say, for example, whether the post of Commissioner for Enlargement will disappear (as some people, starting with Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, fear). Mina Andreeva, one of Juncker's spokespersons, also said that there was no written agreement between the Social-Democrats and Juncker as regards allocating the post of Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs to this political family. Juncker nevertheless reportedly made a verbal promise of this during his hearing by the European Parliament's S&D Group in July before he was elected in Strasbourg, as reported by many Socialist MEPs at that time. France's President François Hollande also spoke of such an agreement during the Social-Democrat family summit in Paris at the end of August (see EUROPE 11144).
If nothing changes, the college of commissioners that takes up office at the start of November will include nine women. Fourteen commissioners are from the EPP, five are from the Liberal family (which constitutes a small victory for the ALDE family as it was hoping for at least four commissioners), and eight are from the PES. In addition, a Conservative from the ECR - Jonathan Hill from the UK - will also take up office.
The final list of candidates sent to the Presidency of the EU Council is as follows (in alphabetical order): Vytenis ANDRIUKAITIS (Lithuania), Andrus ANSIP (Estonia), Miguel ARIAS CAÑETE (Spain), Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS (Greece), Elzbieta BIENKOWSKA (Poland), Alenka BRATUSEK (Slovenia), Corina CRETU (Romania), Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (Latvia), Kristalina GEORGIEVA, (Bulgaria), Johannes HAHN (Austria), Jonathan HILL (United Kingdom), Phil HOGAN, (Ireland), Vera JOUROVA (Czech Republic) Jyrki KATAINEN (Finland),Cecilia MALMSTRÖM (Sweden), Neven MIMICA (Croatia), Carlos MOEDAS (Portugal), Pierre MOSCOVICI (France), Tibor NAVRACSICS (Hungary), Günther OETTINGER (Germany), Maros SEFCOVIC (Slovakia), Christos STYLIANIDES (Cyprus), Marianne THYSSEN (Belgium), Frans TIMMERMANS (Netherlands), Karmenu VELLA (Malta) and Margrethe VESTAGER (Denmark). (SP)