European Commission president's potential choices for new team disclosed

By Selen Valente Rasquinho

BRUSSELS (AA) – The possible names of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's new team have been disclosed, the German daily Die Welt reported Tuesday.

The process of member states nominating Commission members is now completed.

Von der Leyen is expected to evaluate her candidates starting Tuesday and then announce her decision soon.

The process did not go as she wanted, however. In a letter sent to member states on July 25, she said she would pursue gender balance.

She asked each member to propose two names, one male and one female, instead of one.

But except for former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who was nominated by member states as the European Union foreign policy chief, only a few countries put forward female candidates.

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Teresa Ribera, Portugal's Social Democratic Party National Council member Maria Luis Albuquerque, Sweden's EU Minister Jessika Roswall, Finnish politician and Member of the European Parliament Henna Virkkunen, Croatian politician and Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Suica, Bulgaria’s former Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and Belgium's Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib were proposed as female candidates.

France, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia and the Netherlands have picked already well-known names.

European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton from France, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi from Hungary, EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis from Latvia, EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic from Slovakia and European Commissioner for Climate Action Wopke Hoekstra from the Netherlands have been re-nominated.

Austria nominated Finance Minister Magnus Brunner, while Bulgaria's male candidate is European Climate Foundation fellow Julian Popov, the Greek Cypriot administration's candidate is former Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis and the Czech Republic’s is Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela.

Danish Development and Climate Policy Minister Dan Jorgensen, the governor of Greece’s Central Macedonia region Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Irish Finance Minister Michael McGrath, Italian Minister of EU affairs Raffaele Fitto, Lithuanian Member of the European Parliament Andrius Kubilius, Luxembourg Member of the European Parliament Christophe Hansen, Glenn Micallef, Malta’s European affairs advisor to the Prime Minister, Polish Ambassador to the EU Piotr Serafin and Tomaz Vesel, the former president of Slovenia's Court of Audit, were nominated by their countries.

Von der Leyen is expected to evaluate the candidates throughout this week and announce her decision on Sept. 6.

Following the decision, the new members of the European Commission will address the relevant committees in the European Parliament and participate in question-and-answer sessions.

With the committees' notes, von der Leyen's new team will receive a vote of confidence from the parliament’s general assembly.

The new commission is expected to take office in December.

Each of the 27 countries in the EU has the right to send one member to the commission.

The commissioners are the most senior officials in the union’s executive body and as ministers in national governments and each is responsible for a variety of issues such as trade, agriculture, health and labor, and carry out the union’s policies.