Slovenia’s candidate for EU commissioner withdraws over disagreements with Von der Leyen

MADRID/BRUSSELS, 6 Sep. () –

Slovenia’s candidate for the new European Commission, Tomaz Vesel, resigned on Friday due to disagreements with the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, just days after Robert Golob’s government reaffirmed that it would not nominate another person in the interest of gender parity.

Vesel, former president of the Slovenian Court of Auditors, has acknowledged in a statement that he does not share with Von de Leyen “the same criteria on the functioning of the European Commission”, without going into details regarding these discrepancies, even if they have to do with the fact that the German conservative has expressly called for more female candidates.

Vesel hopes that Slovenia will get an “influential” portfolio in the next College of Commissioners, which has yet to be distributed. It is up to Von der Leyen to work out this distribution, so that she can increase or decrease the weight of responsibilities according to the criteria she considers.

The Commission President has already made it clear that she will take into account competition and also parity between men and women. “Throughout my political life I have fought for women to access positions of responsibility. My experience is that if you don’t ask for it, you don’t get it. (Equality) doesn’t come naturally,” she said this week.

The Slovenian government announced in a statement that coalition partners will meet on Monday to announce Vesel’s replacement. Golob said he “respected” the decision of the former candidate and praised his professionalism, hoping that he can remain “at Slovenia’s disposal” for future assignments.

NO FIXED TERM ON THE TABLE

Von der Leyen’s spokesman, Eric Mamer, said on Friday that the process “is still ongoing”, so he did not want to say when the German politician would finalise her team and announce the portfolio distribution she is proposing.

However, the forecasts suggest that the composition of the new government could be known next Wednesday, the 11th, as Von der Leyen will attend the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament first thing in the morning to discuss her new Executive.