Four European Commissioners on their respective national lists were elected in the European elections on Sunday 9 June: - Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission; - Romania’s Adina Vălean, in charge of transport; - Lithuania’s Virginijus Sinkevičius, responsible for the Environment, and: - Dubravka Šuica from Croatia, responsible for Democracy and Demography.
At this stage, Valdis Dombrovskis has been endorsed by his government to run for a third term as European Commissioner. Evika Siliņa, Prime Minister of Latvia, announced her decision to reappoint Mr Dombrovskis on the afternoon of Tuesday 11 June. She praised a “competent candidate with extensive professional experience and the opportunity to acquire as much influence as possible within the European Commission”. “It is in Latvia’s interest to strengthen its influence within the Union”, she added.
Virginijus Sinkevičius is set to leave his post at the Commission to join the European Parliament. Although he could transfer his seat and remain in his current position, he told the Lithuanian press that he had no intention of doing so. As head of list of the new Union of Democrats for Lithuania, Mr Sinkevičius is expected to take the party’s only seat in Parliament, which received 5.95% of the vote, and to sit in the Greens/EFA group.
For the other two Commissioners standing in the European elections, the question of their future remains open. In accordance with the timetable, they have just over a month, until the evening of 15 July, to make their decision known: either to turn down their post as MEP and hand it over to an ally, or to accept it and resign from their position within the Commission.
In which case, two options would open up for their replacement between now and the formation of the next College of European Commissioners. The governments of their respective countries could decide to send a replacement immediately, who would then have to be heard by the European Parliament, which could take a long time. Or they could decide to wait until the next Commission is sworn in, in which case another Commissioner will take over their duties in the interim, until the end of the von der Leyen Commission’s term of office at the end of November. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)