Following a meeting with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced, in Brussels on Thursday 22 August, that he had put forward the name of Victor Negrescu, recently elected Vice-President of the European Parliament, for the post of European Commissioner. His Luxembourger counterpart, Luc Frieden, did the same, putting forward the name of Christophe Hansen, also an MEP.
With these two nominations, twenty-two EU Member States have put forward names for the next College of the European Commission.
Among these Commissioners-designate, fifteen political figures (four women and eleven men) are being proposed for the first time by their home country: - Austrian Magnus Brunner, currently Minister of Finance; - Irishman Michael McGrath, currently Minister of Finance; - Cypriot Costas Kadis, former minister; - Spain’s Teresa Ribera, currently Minister for Ecological Transition; - the Estonian Kaja Kallas, former Prime Minister and nominated by the European Council to occupy the post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs (see EUROPE 13441/1); - Finland’s Henna Virkkunen, currently an MEP (EPP); - Greece’s Apostolos Tzitzikostas, former President of the European Committee of the Regions; - Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius, currently an MEP (EPP); - Christophe Hansen from Luxembourg, currently an MEP (EPP); - Malta’s Glenn Micallef, former right-hand man to Prime Minister Robert Abela; - Piotr Serafin from Poland, Ambassador to the EU; Victor Negrescu from Romania, currently an MEP (S&D); - Tomaž Vesel, former President of the Slovenian Court of Audit; - Sweden’s Jessika Roswall, currently Minister for European Affairs; - Jozef Síkela from the Czech Republic, currently Minister for Industry and Trade.
In addition to Ms von der Leyen’s re-election by the European Parliament in July (see EUROPE 13456/1), six European Commissioners (one woman, five men) have been reappointed, at this stage, for a new (or full) mandate. They are: - Croatia’s Dubravka Šuica, currently in charge of Democracy and Demography; - France’s Thierry Breton, currently responsible for the Internal Market and Services; - Olivér Várhelyi from Hungary, currently responsible for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy; - the Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President currently responsible for the Economy and Trade; - the Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra, currently in charge of Climate Action; - Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, Executive Vice-President currently in charge of the European Green Deal.
Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy and Portugal have until the end of August to put forward a candidate.
In order once again to achieve parity within the College of Commissioners, Ms von der Leyen has asked the Member States to submit the names of one man and one woman to her, unless the Commissioner is already in office. However, the fifteen EU countries concerned have not done so. The goal of parity looks increasingly difficult to achieve, as sixteen men have already been nominated, five of whom are already serving in the European Commission.
When asked on Thursday whether Ms von der Leyen wanted to achieve parity within the College, the Commission’s spokesman, Eric Mamer, dismissed the question, saying that the process was “ongoing”.
Once the College has been announced, each European Commissioner-designate will undergo a hearing by the relevant European Parliament committee in the autumn. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)