European Union|The governments of the member countries have nominated only ten women as commissioner candidates. There are currently 13 female commissioners.
Brussels
EU countries the reluctance of governments to appoint women as commissioners causes a headache for the president of the commission For Ursula von der Leyenwhich is currently planning the portfolio allocation of the new Commission. He has promised to take care of gender equality at the head of the commission.
“We aim for an equal number of women and men in the college,” von der Leyen said in July when the European Parliament approved her appointment for a second term.
The College is the highest decision-making body of the Commission, consisting of 27 Commissioners. Each of them is appointed by the government of their home country.
In the current commission, equality is somehow realized: 14 of the commissioners are men and 13 are women. Now equality threatens to take a back seat.
Von der Leyen asked the member countries to nominate their commissioner candidates by the end of August, and the list is dominated by men.
The commission itself does not agree to comment on the nomination process in any way, not even to say whether the member countries have nominated the candidates. Data compiled by Politico however, they say that 18 of the candidates named by the member countries are men and only ten are women. Only the Bulgarian government complied with von der Leyen’s wish and nominated a man and a woman.
The situation is difficult for von der Leyen, because formally he has no say in the appointments of member countries’ governments.
However, the division of work of the commissioners is purely in his hands, and according to Politico, von der Leyen is now trying to persuade and pressure small member states to change their male candidate to a woman by promising them more significant portfolios in the new commission. The Romanian government already agreed to the exchange.
The Finnish government is not the target of von der Leyen’s pressure, as the government nominated a member of the European Parliament as a candidate for commissioner in the summer Henna Virkkunen (cook).
of female commissioners the amount is not only important to von der Leyen for personal reasons, but it can essentially affect how quickly the new commission can start its work. The European Parliament has to approve the composition of the new commission, and presumably female representation is one of the things MEPs pay attention to.
Von der Leyen is currently interviewing commissioner candidates. He is expected to announce the appointments possibly as early as next week.
The leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament have asked him to present the composition of the new Commission on 11 September.
Despite the problems related to the assembly of the collegium, the leadership of the EU institutions will be exceptionally dominated by women in the coming years. Estonia was elected as the EU’s foreign policy representative in the summer Kaja Kallasand the European Parliament is chaired by a Maltese Roberta Metsola. The European Council, which only represents member countries, is headed by a man, namely Portugal Antonio Costa.
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