EU, von der Leyen dictates the times to governments on names for the future Commission –

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, sent a letter today to EU governments asking them to nominate a man and a woman for the role of commissioner in the new legislature. The exception to the rule on gender equality is the reappointment of commissioners already in office. The deadline for responding is August 30. Obviously, this is an indicative deadline. Von der Leyen’s intention is to start discussions with the commissioners-designate as early as the middle of the month. “I will choose the best-prepared candidates who share the European commitment,” von der Leyen assured in the press conference after her reappointment to the European Parliament.

In the meantime, some countries have already come forward. The first was Latvia, which renewed its trust in the current outgoing executive vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis. In her programmatic lines, von der Leyen announced the creation of new portfolios: Defense and the Mediterranean, which will have to coordinate with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, who will be the outgoing Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas. The composition of the College of Commissioners – the president and 26 commissioners – generally reflects the composition of the European Council, being indicated by the governments. There are exceptions.

Von der Leyen’s aim is to propose the commissioners to the European Parliament for hearings in September and to have a vote on the whole Commission in October. According to the Treaties, once the Parliament has elected the Commission President with an absolute majority, it can only reject or accept the Commission as a whole (by simple majority) and not the individual commissioners-designate. They can, however, be rejected by the competent committees in the assessment of the hearings. It is not unusual for a commissioner-designate to be ‘rejected’ at the parliamentary hearing.