EU countries yet to obey von der Leyen’s demand for male and female Commissioner nominees

A requirement by Ursula von der Leyen for EU nations to place ahead two names – one male and one feminine – to bid for a spot in her new workforce has fallen on deaf ears within the capitals.

Whereas the member states have till August 30 to suggest European Commissioner nominees for the following five-year time period, no nation has but indicated willingness to pitch two candidates from each genders consistent with von der Leyen’s request.

“I need to decide the best-prepared candidates who share the European dedication. As soon as once more, I’ll goal for an equal share of women and men on the Faculty desk,” von der Leyen advised the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg following her re-election final week.

The Fee President formalised her plea with a letter despatched to EU governments on Thursday morning. A spokesperson for the chief confirmed that it explicitly lays out von der Leyen’s plan to strike a steadiness between each genders.

9 member states have already confirmed their candidates, who will must be grilled by von der Leyen as of mid-August after which survive a vote within the European Parliament’s committees earlier than they’ll safe a spot within the new ‘faculty’ of Commissioners.

Of these 9, six member states are fielding new candidates, however none have complied with von der Leyen’s request.

The remaining three – Latvia, the Netherlands and Slovakia – have chosen to re-nominate their outgoing Commissioners and are due to this fact not required to area each a person and a lady.

Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris advised reporters this week that he would solely be fielding former Finance Minister Michael McGrath, regardless of taking gender parity “extraordinarily severely.”

Harris stated that Dublin “doesn’t flippantly ship their finance minister to Brussels,” which means the federal government may very well be reluctant to suggest one other feminine candidate to compete with heavyweight McGrath.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala joined Harris in solely nominating a male contender on Thursday when he confirmed his authorities had hand-picked Trade and Commerce Minister Jozef Síkela to bid for a spot within the EU government.

Slovenia has additionally nominated a sole male candidate, whereas Finland, Spain and Sweden have all pitched a lady solely.

“I believe the request of the president was clear to the member states – that she goals at having an equal share of women and men on the faculty desk, and because of this, she’s requesting two names,” a European Fee spokesperson stated on Thursday.

“She’s going to, in fact, conduct her interviews and choose on the idea of deserves of the candidates,” the spokesperson added. “I believe it is pretty clear what she’s aiming at.”

The outgoing von der Leyen Fee had a gender steadiness of 13 feminine and 14 male Commissioners.

Von der Leyen is the primary girl to preside over the EU’s government arm, and has vowed to develop a “Roadmap for Ladies’s Rights” throughout her second time period to shut the gender pay and pensions hole, deal with violence towards ladies and reconcile care and profession.