EU chief unveils new right-leaning Commission with women in top roles

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presents her new team for the next five-year at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: AFP

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday (September 17, 2024) put women in many of the top roles on her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc, despite the reluctance of many European Union member states to give in to her demand for gender parity.

The European Commission proposes legislation for the EUโ€™s 27 member countries and ensures that the rules governing the worldโ€™s biggest trading bloc are respected. It is made up of a College of Commissioners with a range of portfolios similar to those of government Ministers, including agriculture, economic, competition, security and migration policy.

The Commission is to start work on November 1, but speculation is rife that it might not get down to business before January.

Ms. von der Leyen named only two men in her top echelon with four women as Vice Presidents, including Kaja Kallas as foreign policy chief. Ms. Kallas was already agreed on by government leaders.

Ms. Von der Leyen on Tuesday added Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera to lead the green transition, along with Ms. Ribera also becoming the competition czar. Finlandโ€™s Henna Virkkunen was her pick for rule of law and digital leader, and Roxana Minzatu of Romania for social affairs leader.

The appointments of the Commission team โ€” which veers to the right after the June elections saw a surge of far-right parties โ€” still have to be confirmed.

The appointment of Raffaele Fitto of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloniโ€™s hard-right Brothers of Italy party as Executive Vice President is bound to cause controversy during the parliamentary confirmation hearing in the coming weeks.

Also on Tuesday, Ms. von der Leyen gave French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne the industrial portfolio, after French heavyweight Thierry Breton resigned and openly criticised the EU chief for allegedly โ€œquestionable governanceโ€ on Monday.

It left France with a strong voice in the Commission, and many saw Mr. Bretonโ€™s shock resignation more as a removal by Ms. von der Leyen of one of her most open internal critics after exerting pressure on French authorities.

Compounding such problems was the defiance of many of the 27 member states as Ms. von der Leyen struggled to get anywhere close to gender parity on her Commission team โ€” they staunchly refused to give her a choice between a male and a female candidate.

โ€˜Improved balanceโ€™

She said that originally, EU nations only proposed 22% female candidates before she started to push for more.

โ€œSo I worked with the member states and we were able to improve the balance to 40% women and 60% men. And it shows that โ€” as much as we have achieved โ€” there is still so much more work to do,โ€ Ms. von der Leyen said.

While she could not get full gender parity in numbers, Ms. von der Leyen made sure that they were more than well represented in the top jobs.

After days of secret talks with individual European governments about their picks, Ms. von der Leyen huddled with the leaders of the political groups at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to discuss the makeup of her college before making the final announcement.

Now attention will centre on the hearings in the European Parliament, where each candidate can be rejected to force a member state to put another candidate forward.

All eyes are expected to be on Mr. Fitto, with some already criticising his appointment.

Greens lawmaker Rasmus Andresen said it was โ€œcompletely incomprehensibleโ€ to name a representative of a far-right party, to the post of Executive Vice President of the Commission.

โ€œCan an anti-European manage EU funds,โ€ Mr. Andresen asked.

โ€œFor the first time, our European executive will have among its leaders, someone who comes from the far right,โ€ said Manon Aubry, the leader of The Left group. โ€œIt is without precedent.โ€

However, Ms. von der Leyen said the Commission team had to reflect Italyโ€™s weight as a founding member and major economy.

โ€œI think the balance is also very well kept,โ€ said Ms. von der Leyen, who has long sought to keep Ms. Meloni, whose political roots are steeped deep in the extreme right, close once she became Prime Minister in 2022.

Ms. Meloni welcomed Mr. Fittoโ€™s appointment to a high-ranking position, calling it โ€œan important recognition that confirms the newfound central role of our nation in the EU.โ€

โ€œItaly is finally back as a protagonist in Europe,โ€ Ms. Meloni said.

Even if the Commissionโ€™s makeup has hardly become the talk of bar rooms or barber shops across the vast EU of 450 million people, it has enthralled the upper echelons of politics and bureaucracy, as they sought to boost one candidate or undermine another.



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