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EU chief asks capitals for European Commission candidates

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday asked member countries to propose candidates — a man and a woman — for her next European Commission, as her team stressed she was aiming for gender balance.

Von der Leyen gave EU capitals until August 30 to respond to her letter, so she can make her choices and have them undergo confirmation hearings in the European Parliament in September and October.

Last week — when the parliament confirmed von der Leyen for a second five-year mandate following EU elections held in June — the commission president said she was repeating the process used for her current, outgoing group of commissioners.

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In her letter, she said she would ask capitals to put forward “a man and a woman as candidate” so she could interview them mid-August and make her pick.

“Once again, I will aim for an equal share of men and women at the… table,” she said.

The only exception to that, she said, was if an EU country was renominating a current commissioner.

– One post per country –

Each of the EU’s 27 member countries gets to have a commissioner.

Von der Leyen, a German, fills her country’s spot. EU leaders have already named Estonian former prime minister Kaja Kallas as their pick for the bloc’s foreign policy chief, who also sits as a commission vice president.

It was not certain, though, that all other member countries were going to comply with von der Leyen’s direction.

Ireland, for instance, has already put forward just one candidate — a man: former finance minister Michael McGrath.

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Commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta on Thursday declined to be drawn into what von der Leyen might do if her two-candidate demand was ignored.

“I will not speculate further on what will happen further in the process and hypothetical scenarios,” Podesta said.

“It’s a request concerning an aim to have gender equality… and I think it’s fairly clear what she’s aiming at,” she said.

– Women in key posts –

Some countries have indicated they want their current commissioners to stay on.

French President Emmanuel Macron said late June he would like EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton to remain.

But with France’s next government post-July elections not yet decided, it was unclear whether that choice falls to Macron or to his future prime minister.

EU treaties do not require member countries to offer more than one candidate for the commission, though they do state their choice needs the agreement of the commission president.

If Kallas is confirmed as commission vice president, four out of five of the European Union’s most influential and high-profile posts will be filled by women.

Von der Leyen is president of the incoming commission; Malta’s Roberta Metsola stays on as speaker of the European Parliament; Christine Lagarde of France is already head of the European Central Bank; and Kallas would fill the vice president/high representative job.

The fifth post — that of European Council president, who chairs summits of EU leaders — has already been decided, and from December will be former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa, a man.

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