Von der Leyen gives governments until 30 August to present their candidates for commissioners

BRUSSELS, Jul. 25 () –

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has sent a formal letter on Thursday to ask the Member States to present their candidates to occupy a seat in the College of Commissioners that the German will design for the next legislature, a distribution for which she has asked each government to present a male and a female profile to guarantee that it can form an equal team.

In the case of Spain, the Government has not yet formalised its decision but it is assumed that it will be the third vice-president of the Government, Teresa Ribera, who chose not to accept her seat as a MEP despite winning a seat in the European elections in June; although it remains to be seen whether Pedro Sánchez’s Executive will ignore Von der Leyen’s request to also put the name of a man on the table.

Von der Leyen plans to start interviewing candidates in mid-August, her team has said, with the aim of deciding on the allocation of posts and portfolios in early autumn so that those chosen can sit the European Parliament’s scrutiny in October.

As Von der Leyen herself announced last week from Strasbourg (France), after the European Parliament approved her re-election, she will ask each Member State for a double candidacy, made up of a man and a woman, so that she can choose between them based on the positions and parity.

Only countries that put forward as a candidate a commissioner who is already part of their executive in the legislature that is ending will be exempt from this requirement, as has already occurred with the governments of Latvia and Slovakia, which have already announced that they are betting on Valdis Dombrovskis and Maros Sefcovic, respectively, both already vice-presidents of the current Commission.

Estonia is also exempt from this requirement, as its former Prime Minister Kaja Kallas will be the next High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union, a post that is elected by the heads of state and government of the EU but which also entails a vice-presidency of the Community Executive.

“She wants to ensure a balanced team, she will conduct the interviews and decide on the basis of the merits of each candidate,” said an EU spokesperson at a press conference in Brussels, to avoid answering what Von der Leyen will do if some countries ignore her request for a double candidacy that would allow her to choose between a man and a woman in each case.

More than half of the countries, including Italy, Poland and Greece, have not yet announced their candidates; some, such as France and Belgium, have the added difficulty of having interim governments while negotiations advance to form new executives with a different political orientation to the outgoing one.

Once the German authorities have interviewed the candidates put forward by the national governments, they will have to undergo an examination by the European Parliament, where the committees corresponding to each area of ​​responsibility of the proposed commissioners will assess them individually before submitting the appointment of the entire College of Commissioners to a vote in plenary.

This process will begin after the summer break, when the institutions resume their work with the new legislature and will take place over several months, so it is expected that the new Commission will not begin its legislative journey until December.