EU – Baltic States, Legislation

The Commission’s president, José Manuel Barroso was elected for his second post in office in September 2009. At the end of November, High Representative / Vice President of the Commission, Catherine Ashton, was nominated at the November EU summit. Now it is turn for the Commission’s President and, first of all the European Parliament to find their “right places” for the 5-years term in the European Commission.    

President Barroso will now proceed with the allocation of portfolios. Hearings at the European Parliament will take place in January before the College of Commissioners, as a whole will be subject to a vote of approval by the European Parliament.

At the ceremony of presenting designated persons by the EU-27 member states, President Barroso said: “I am pleased to have received nominations from all Member States. Now it is my job to allocate the right portfolios to the right people. I look forward to present a strong Commission team to the European Parliament”.

The list of nominations includes one representative from each of the 27 member states. Future Commissioners designated for posts in the next Commission for 5-years term represent the following member states:

Austria – Johannes Hahn, Belgium – Karel De Gucht, Bulgaria – Rumiana Jeleva, Cyprus – Androulla Vassiliou, Czech Republic – Štefan Füle, Denmark – Connie Hedegaard, Estonia – Siim Kallas, Finland – Olli Rehn, France – Michel Barnier, Germany – Günther H. Oettinger, Greece – Maria Damanaki, Hungary – László Andor, Ireland – Máire Geoghegan Quinn, Italy – Antonio Tajani, Latvia – Andris Piebalgs, Lithuania – Algirdas Šemeta, Luxembourg – Viviane Reding, Malta – John Dalli, the Netherlands – Neelie Kroes, Poland – Janusz Lewandowski, Romania – Dacian Cioloş, Slovakia – Maroš Šefčovič, Slovenia – Janez Potočnik, Spain – Joaquín Almunia, Sweden – Cecilia Malmström.

Old and new staff

There are some new completely new figures among the designated persons: e.g. Connie Hedegaard from Denmark, Michel Barnier from France, G.H. Oettinger from Germany, etc. totally 12 member states decided to make completely new representatives of their countries. Even those that have been recently performing various Commissioners’ duties, e.g. Poland decided to make a new choice.  

Seven commissioners (including the president) will serve the second term (two are from the Baltic States): these are from Portugal, Estonia, Luxembourg, Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Latvia.

Out of 27 members of the Commission, there are eight women (from Sweden and Denmark, Cyprus and Greece, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Ireland and Bulgaria). The Commission’s president, J. M. Barroso already promised that there would be at least one third of the staff women. However, in the EU-27 population the women’s share is about the half; there is something to catch up with in the future.