The President of the European Commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen, re-elected this summer as head of the European Commission by MEPs, begins her second term with a headache: keeping her promise of a joint Commission with at least 13 women out of 27.
For the moment, the count is not there, with barely 10 women commissioners, while Ursula von der Leyen is due to present her college of commissioners to the European Parliament on Wednesday 11 September.
This summer, she had asked each member state of the European Union to propose a man and a woman for the post, but her request was very little followed up, like France which only proposed the reappointment of Thierry Breton.
The last three Commissions were joint
“This is a very bad signal sent by the Member States because the European Commission of the previous term of Ursula von der Leyen (2019-2024) was gender-balanced, just like those of Jean-Claude Juncker (2014-2019) and José Manuel Barroso (2004-2014),” recalls Pascale Joannin, Director General of the Robert Schuman Foundation, interviewed on the program Ici l’Europe, on France 24 and Public Sénat.
“Each time, it was necessary to twist the arms of the States. This lack of parity also comes at a time when three women are leading the European institutions: Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission, Roberta Metsola, the European Parliament and Christine Lagarde, the European Central Bank.”
“It’s the institutional nature of the European Union that is coming back at a gallop,” explains Théo Verdier, co-director of the Europe Observatory at the Jean Jaurès Foundation. “It’s about trying to impose collective discipline on a set of individual interests. When a member state proposes its European commissioner, it does so based on national political objectives, such as satisfying a coalition or winning a specific portfolio. This year, we’re starting from very far away in terms of parity and I doubt that we’ll achieve a perfect balance.”
The European Parliament as arbiter
If Ursula von der Leyen does not achieve her goals in the coming days, she will probably be able to count on MEPs who have the power to reject certain proposed commissioners. “Once the college of European commissioners has been officially presented, and the portfolios have been distributed, each commissioner is interviewed by the committees of the European Parliament that are concerned with their portfolio,” explains Christophe Préault, director of the news site Toute l’Europe. MEPs then vote to validate or not the candidate commissioner. “It is quite possible that the European Parliament will reject certain male commissioners to achieve this parity,” assures Pascale Joannin.
The hearings of the European Commissioners will take place over the next two months before the European Commission takes office on 1 November.
