The Ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper II) will discuss on Wednesday 3 July the proposal of the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to not appoint alternates to the posts of the Commissioners who now sit in the European Parliament.
Indeed, several Commissioners obtained a seat in the new European Parliament which opened its inaugural session (see EUROPE 12287/3), namely the Dutch Frans Timmermans, the Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis, the Bulgarian Mariya Gabriel, the Estonian Andrus Ansip and the Romanian Corina Creţu.
Only the latter two have decided to sit on the European Parliament. Their respective posts in the Commission, as Commissioners for the Digital Single Market and Cohesion Policy, will remain vacant for four months.
However, for the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, replacing these Commissioners to complete the mandate makes no sense and is costly (see EUROPE 12277/15, 12267/2). The Commission has therefore proposed to the Council of the EU to decide unanimously that the two posts will remain vacant.
For the time being, the unanimity required by the Member States does not seem to be assured, we are told, as Estonia and the Netherlands took a position against it at the 'any other business' point at the Coreper meeting on Wednesday 26 June.
On Tuesday, Mr Timmermans reportedly notified his decision not to sit in the European Parliament, the question no longer arises for the Netherlands, but there remains Estonia.
Romania and Estonia have already decided on their replacements. At its congress on Saturday 29 June, the Romanian Socialist Party (PSR) appointed former MEP Ioan Mircea Pașcu (S&D), who had replaced Mrs Creţu at the last minute in the European Parliament when she was appointed Commissioner.
In June, the Estonian government appointed Kadri Simson to replace Mr Ansip. For Estonia, Mrs Simson would not only be a "substitute", but also the Commissioner for the mandate of the post-Juncker Commission (see EUROPE 12270/32).
According to another source, if the proposal on the table is not approved, the hearing of the two new substitutes could take place during the second session of the European Parliament, from 15 July. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)