Five governments, including Italy, missing from the roll call for the appointment of new European commissioners

UPDATE of 28 August: The government of Portugal nominated Maria Luís Albuquerque (EPP), former Minister of Finance, as candidate European Commissioner. Denmark announced today that it has chosen Dan Jørgensen (Pse) , Minister for Climate.

Brussels – Only Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, and Bulgaria (but the latter two don’t have a government in office) are missing. The other 22 EU governments have already indicated to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (representing Germany) their candidates to the College of Commissioners for 2024–2029. Governments have until the end of August to submit a candidate.

The name on which most predictions are converging is Minister Raffaele Fitto, but nothing official has yet been announced, while Giorgia Meloni is probably engaged in negotiations with von der Leyen over the definition of the portfolio that could be assigned to Italy. The Italian premier’s abstention vote on the German president’s confirmation certainly did not help ease relations, which were already not as serene as they were until a few months ago, before the European election campaign, and the issue could be very complicated.

On Thursday, 22, nominations came from Romania, which chose Victor Negrescu, newly elected vice president of the European Parliament as the Social Democrats’ candidate, and Luxembourg, with Christophe Hansen, also an MEP but from the EPP.

“First-timers” also include Austria’s Magnus Brunner, currently minister of finance; Ireland’s Michael McGrath, also finance minister; Cyprus’s Costas Kadis, former minister; Spain’s Teresa Ribera, currently minister of Ecological Transition; Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, former prime minister and appointed by the European Council as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs; Finland’s Henna Virkkunen, currently a MEP (EPP); Greece’s Apostolos Tzitzikostas, former chairman of the European Committee of the Regions; Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius, MEP (EPP); Malta’s Glenn Micallef, chief secretary to Prime Minister Robert Abela; Poland’s Piotr Serafin, ambassador to the EU; Tomaž Vesel of Slovenia, former president of the Slovenian Court of Auditors; Jessika Roswall of Sweden, currently minister of European Affairs; and Jozef Síkela of the Czech Republic, minister of Industry and Trade.

Six European commissioners (one woman and five men) were confirmed by their governments for a new term. Croatia’s Dubravka Šuica, currently responsible for Democracy and Demography; France’s Thierry Breton, responsible for Internal Market and Services; Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi, responsible for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy; Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President, responsible for Economy and Trade; Netherlands’ Wopke Hoekstra, responsible for Climate Action; Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, executive vice president, responsible for the “European Green Pact.”

It will be very difficult to adhere to a gender balance in the new Commission since of the 22 commissioners already named, 16 are men. The states did not heed von der Leyen’s invitation to present pairs of candidates of different sexes.

Once the College is presented, each commissioner nominee, starting in late September, will be subject to a hearing by the relevant parliamentary committee, which may also reject their nomination.