TO Ursula von der Leyen The president of the European Parliament, who was re-elected in July for a second term at the head of the European Commission from 2024 to 2029, is having a harder time than expected putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. She was summoned to the European Parliament on Wednesday to reveal the distribution of portfolios among the candidates sent to Brussels by the Member States. The meeting was cancelled: the German ask for more time (at least one extra week) to solve the sudoku.
The argument that Von der Leyen has used before the European Parliament is that one of the pieces is still missing. This is the result of the pressure that she herself has exerted to improve your team’s paritySlovenia has just changed its commissioner. Instead of Tomaz Veselformer president of its Court of Auditors, the Ljubljana government has sent the diplomat Marta Kos. However, the candidacy is not yet final, as it needs the approval of the Slovenian Parliament.
“The Slovenian government has informed the Commission that the Slovenian Parliament will give its opinion on the proposed candidate for the post of Commissioner on Friday. Only after this step will the nomination of the candidate be finalised and made official,” said Von der Leyen’s spokesman, Eric Mamer.
[Von der Leyen sopesa dar a Teresa Ribera la codiciada cartera de Competencia y alejarla de Transición]
“Based on this, the Commission has asked the European Parliament postpone the presentation of the school composition “President von der Leyen will not be able to continue the process until the list of nominees is complete,” the spokesperson explained. A new meeting of the Conference of Presidents (the body equivalent to the House of Representatives’ Board of Spokespersons) has provisionally been scheduled for next Tuesday, 17 September, in Strasbourg.
The mandate of the current Community Executive expires on October 31, and the delay in the distribution of portfolios could force him to remain in office for an indefinite period. The first Von der Leyen Commission It has already been delayed for a month due to problems with the ratification of the College in the European Parliament.
Von der Leyen faces a difficult task in allocating portfolios. She must not only take into account the competence and experience of the different commissioners, but she must also respecting a whole series of geographical, political and gender balances.
An example of the difficulties that the president is experiencing is the case of the Spanish candidate, Teresa RiberaIt was taken for granted from the beginning that she would be awarded a vice-presidency responsible for everything related to the green transition, given that she is an expert in the field and at the same time the main representative of the socialist family in Von der Leyen’s team.
However, the German is now considering giving Ribera the coveted Competition portfolio (perhaps the one with the most direct power in Brussels) precisely in order to distance him from the Ecological Transition. The reason would be that the European Popular Party distrusts the Spanish “activism” and prefers that the control of the European Green Pact be in the hands of one of its own commissioners, according to the publication of the Financial Times.
The other big issue facing Von der Leyen is gender parity. With Slovenia’s change, the German will have a college of commissioners made up of 10 women and 16 men. Once the distribution of portfolios is made public, Candidates for commissioners must pass the European Parliament’s examination in a public hearing. In the end, the entire college must be ratified by a simple majority in the European Parliament. The final vote was scheduled for the last week of October, but will most likely be postponed to November.
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