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EU Chief Unveils Her New Team 09/17 06:14
BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen put women in many
of the top roles on her new team for her next five-year tenure at the head of
the bloc on Tuesday, despite the reluctance of many EU member states to give in
to her demand for gender parity.
Von der Leyen put only two men in her top echelon with four women as vice
presidents, including Kaja Kallas as foreign policy chief. Kallas was already
agreed on by government leaders.
Von der Leyen on Tuesday added Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera to lead the
green transition, along with Ribera also becoming the competition czar.
Finland'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 -- which veers to the right after
the June elections saw a surge of far-right parties -- still have to be
confirmed.
The appointment as executive vice president of Raffaele Fitto of Italian
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard right Brothers of Italy party is bound to
cause controversy during the parliamentary confirmation hearing in the coming
weeks.
Also on Tuesday, von der Leyen gave French Foreign Minister Stephane
Sejourne the industrial portfolio, after French heavyweight Thierry Breton
resigned and openly criticized the EU chief for allegedly "questionable
governance" on Monday,
It left France with a strong voice in the Commission, and many saw Breton's
shock resignation more as a removal by 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 von der Leyen struggled to get anywhere close to gender parity on her
Commission team -- they staunchly refused to give her a choice between a male
and a female candidate.
She said that originally, EU nations only proposed 22% female candidates
before she started to push for more.
"So I worked with the member states and we were able to improve the balance
to 40% women and 60% men. And it shows that -- as much as we have achieved --
there is still so much more work to do," von der Leyen said.
If she could not get full gender parity in numbers, von der Leyen made sure
they were more than well represented in the top jobs.
After days of secret talks with individual European governments about their
picks, 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 center 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 Fitto.
Greens lawmaker Rasmus Andresen said the appointment of Fitto, a
representative of a far-right party, to the post of executive vice president of
the Commission is "completely incomprehensible."
"Can an anti-European manage EU funds," Andresen asked.
However, von der Leyen said the Commission team had to reflect Italy's
weight as a founding member and major economy.
"The importance of Italy is reflected in the portfolio and the executive
vice president. And I think the balance is also very well kept," von der Leyen
said.
Even if the Commission'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.
The Commission proposes legislation for the EU's 27 member countries and
ensures that the rules governing the world's biggest trading bloc are
respected. It's 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 Nov. 1, but speculation is rife that it
might not get down to business before January.
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