VdL Delays Naming Of New Commission To Next Week-Politico

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been forced to delay naming her new College of Commissioners until next week reports Politico. She had initially planned to unveil the group on 11 September following meetings with presidents of the political groups in the European Parliament. However, with the withdrawal of Slovenia's initial commissioner candidate Tomaž Vesel last week and his replacement with former ambassador to Germany then Switzerland Marta Kos, the process has been stalled as the Slovenian parliament needs to approve the change in personnel.

• As such, the unveiling of the new Commission will take place when MEPs meet in Strasbourg next week for the first plenary since the summer recess.
• Von der Leyen has pushed for a fully gender-balanced College of Commissioners, asking each member state to put forward one male and one female candidate. However, this call was rebuffed by most national capitals, not on ideological grounds but because it would give VdL too much control over who was appointed. The identity of each country's commission appointee is seen as an important political bargaining chip that member state gov'ts are unwilling to give up.
• With Kos' nomination, the split comes in at 10 female and 16 male commissioners, with VdL as the president already approved by the European Parliament.