{"id":380299,"date":"2024-07-24T12:14:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T10:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/24\/candidati-commissari-von-der-leyen-bis\/"},"modified":"2024-07-30T17:20:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T15:20:56","slug":"commissioner-candidates-von-der-leyen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/24\/commissioner-candidates-von-der-leyen\/","title":{"rendered":"One-third of EU governments have already named their respective commissioner candidates for the second von der Leyen term"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The commissioner candidates race in the new College that, starting at the end of the year, will be led again by Ursula von der Leyen\u00a0kicked off<\/strong>. With just\u00a0a few weeks to go from the start of individual interviews<\/a> between the president-elect and the potential members of the second von der Leyen Commission, papers from nine member countries<\/strong> are already on the table: two are certain (Germany and Estonia), and seven\u00a0others that will have to pass through the scrutiny of the President\u00a0of the EU executive and, together with the entire College of Commissioners, of the 720 MEPs before the official inauguration.<\/p>\n

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\"Ursula<\/a>
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (July 18,\u00a02024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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In addition to Germany<\/strong>, which will express the presidency of the Commission with Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, and Estonia<\/strong>, which will see former prime minister Kaja Kallas<\/strong> become EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy – both nominations are the responsibility of the European Council, which decided<\/a> at the June 27 EU leaders’ summit —\u00a0since\u00a0the weeks following the European elections in early June to today official nominations came from the governments of Slovakia<\/strong>, Latvia<\/strong>, Slovenia<\/strong>, Ireland<\/strong>, Sweden<\/strong>, Finland,<\/strong> and Netherlands<\/strong>. At the moment, however, none of the proposals of the seven governments (Germany and Estonia being the exceptions) meet the\u00a0request President von der Leyen<\/a>\u00a0made to the EU Parliament within minutes of her confirmation on Thursday (July 18), the same as in 2019: “In the coming weeks I will ask the member states to propose the commissioner candidates, one man and one woman<\/strong>,” before individual interviews “in mid-August.” The other standard for the new College, however, cannot be waived: “I want to choose the best who share the European commitment, and in terms of numbers, there will be parity between men and women<\/strong>,” von der Leyen made clear.<\/p>\n

As for the names that have come in so far, Slovakia<\/strong> has proposed again\u00a0the outgoing executive vice president of the EU Commission responsible for Interinstitutional Relations and the Green Deal, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d<\/strong>, who could thus serve his\u00a0fourth consecutive term<\/a>.\u00a0Latvia<\/strong>\u00a0proposed for the third time in a row<\/a> the outgoing executive vice-president from the EU Commission responsible for the Economy, Valdis Dombrovskis<\/strong>.\u00a0On the other hand, Slovenia proposed a new name, lawyer and economist Toma\u017e Vesel, former president of the National Audit Court and FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee. For Ireland,<\/strong> there is the center-right Fianna F\u00e1il and former minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (2020-2022) and Finance (2022-2024), Michael McGrath<\/strong>. The government of Sweden<\/strong> decided to bet on the minister for European Affairs, Jessika Roswall.<\/strong>\u00a0Finland<\/strong>\u00a0proposed the MEP in the ranks of the European People’s Party since 2014,\u00a0Henna Virkkunen<\/strong>. Last in chronological order is the nomination by the new right-wing government<\/a> of the Netherlands<\/strong> of the outgoing European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra<\/strong>,\u00a0nominated yesterday (July 23) for a new role in the second von der Leyen cabinet.<\/p>\n

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\"Raffaele<\/a>
Italy’s Minister for European Affairs, Cohesion Policies and the NRRP, Raffaele Fitto (Fratelli d’Italia)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

The right-wing government of Italy<\/strong> chaired by Giorgia Meloni<\/strong>\u00a0has not announced\u00a0the official candidate yet, nor has it made it known when it will make it known. However, in an exclusive interview with Eunews<\/a>, Forza Italia’s head delegation to the EU Parliament, Fulvio Martusciello<\/strong>, said:\u00a0“The commissioner should be Minister Raffaele Fitto.\u00a0We have already debated it extensively, and it\u00a0will be him<\/strong>.” Fitto is currently the minister for European Affairs, Cohesion Policies, and the NRRP from Fratelli d’Italia, the major partner in the governing coalition with Forza Italia and the League that took office on Oct. 22, 2022. He held the office of MEP between 1999 and 2000 and\u00a0between 2014 and 2022<\/strong> (from 2019, he was co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists group), was the governor of the Puglia Region between 2000 and 2005, and minister for the Regions and Territorial Cohesion between 2008 and 2011 in the last government led by Silvio Berlusconi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n