Estonia temporarily waives its own post in the European Commission. As the government in Tallinn announced, former Minister of Economic Affairs Kadri Simson will only switch to Brussels when the incoming EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen takes office. This is scheduled for the 1st of November.
Originally, the Estonian government had planned to send Simson to the outgoing European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker. (Read more about the backgrounds here). However, there was sharp criticism of the project, because Simon would have received the full salary, although no real job would have been provided for them. Juncker had estimated the cost of the short-term occupation at one million euros.
The Estonian place in the EU Commission was released by the election of Andrus Ansip into the European Parliament. Ansip had served as Vice President for the Digital Single Market in Juncker's team.
After the withdrawal of Estonia, it remained unclear whether Romania would make a similar decision. Also the south-east European country wanted to occupy to the last its vacated by the European election Commissar post briefly briefly. This was particularly explosive because the candidate for it is someone other than the one for the future Commission of the Leyens. He would get a stately pension for a few weeks as EU Commissioner - for life.
The EU Commission is responsible for legislative proposals and monitors compliance with EU law. In the governing body, each EU country is usually represented by a Commissioner.
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