One more. Or one. A candidate for the post of EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen is still missing, then their new EU Commission can finally be approved by the European Parliament. On Monday, the future EU Commissioner gave the green light after speaking to Thierry Breton and Olivér Várhelyi, the new Commission candidates from France and Hungary.
Now the candidate from Romania is still missing, and from there Leyens problems begin.
First, it's about Romanian domestic politics, that makes things so complicated. The current Socialist government is only temporarily in office after its corruption-plagued government has lost a vote of no confidence on 10 October.
This coming Monday, a new government headed by the Liberal-Conservative party may come into office. This belongs, like CDU and CSU, to the European People's Party.
The dispute now centers around the question of who can appoint the EU Commissioner: the current executive social democratic government or, if it works on Monday, the new government led by Ludovic Orban (not to be confused with Viktor Orbán from Hungary) ,
"No authority to propose candidates on behalf of Romania"
To make matters worse, that President Klaus Johannis, who is also attributed to the EPP, anyway pursued every step of the Romanian Social Democrats with eagle eyes.
Von der Leyen is already sitting between all chairs anyway, a problem that aggravated them personally on Tuesday. She sent a letter to Bucharest asking the current interim government to finally nominate an EU commissioner. The first Romanian candidate, like the candidates from Hungary and France, failed at the hearings in the European Parliament because of conflicts of interest.
The outgoing Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila brought back from Leyen's letter. She immediately fulfilled Leyens request and nominated the former European Minister Victor Negrescu , a party friend. She specifically referred to the request of Leyen.
EPP-close President Johannis immediately protested - with remarkably sharp words: "Dismissed Prime Minister Viorica Dancila has no authority to propose candidates for a Commission post on behalf of Romania," a statement said.
The result: Von der Leyen rejected the nomination Negrescus. Reason: The candidate is not supported by the Romanian President.
From the Leyens bumpy start
The scramble has what it takes to delay the already bumpy start of the commission from the Leyens on. Together with the EU Parliament, she is currently planning to complete the hearings for the three open commission posts "in the package":
- First, the Judiciary Committee must examine the financial statements and see if there are any conflicts of interest, followed by hearings by policy makers.
- On 27 November, Parliament could then vote on the entire commission from Leyens, so that it can start its work at the beginning of December, as is currently planned.
- That would be a Monday later than planned, but not a drama - even former heads of commission had to postpone their first official day because of trouble with Parliament before.
Another postponement into the new year, on the other hand, would be a really bad signal. Therefore, from the Leyen Romania is now pushing in an opinion to live up to its political responsibilities. On Tuesday evening, her transition team warned that "in our common interest, given the challenges ahead, it is in our common interest that Europe progress without further delay".
The reminder is urgently needed, because not only Romania's Social Democrats, also of the Leyens own party family, the EPP, acts currently only on own account. While it is understandable that the EPP in Romania and Brussels now insists that the new government designate the future EU Commissioner.
However, this demand should be difficult to enforce in the end. In the discussion for the Commissioner's post are the deputy faction leader in the European Parliament Siegfried Muresan and the head of the Energy and Industry Committee Adina-Ioana Vlean .
Muresan is considered a "rising star" in the EPP and should be elected party party leader at the end of November. However, filling the Commissioner's post with EPP people would be a slap in the face for the Social Democrats, who have so far considered the post "theirs." But without their votes, the Leyen can not get their commission through Parliament at the end of November.
Voice # 105 - The EU Post Poker and Merkel's role behind the scenes
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The future head of commission would therefore wish for a compromise candidate, a high-ranking diplomat, for example, who stands above the party ambassadors. However, if there is currently no such thing as a Romanian policy then there is a willingness to compromise. And even conjure up from the hat of the Leyen the new candidate bad - the right to propose lies with the Member States.
Added to this is the man-woman problem: After France and Hungary did not nominate a woman, Leyen's goal of a commission with equal numbers of employees is a long way off. However, with some justification, she can say that she originally proposed to Parliament a commission consisting of roughly equal numbers of men and women. Only the screening in Parliament brought the men in the clear majority.
There remains the time problem
The hearing of the new French candidate Breton is likely to cause even more excitement: after all, was the man who will be responsible for, among other things, the digital single market, until recently head of the French IT service giant Atos. Recently, the French media reported that Breton was ready to sell 34 million euros if he were to become a commissioner - even this huge sum could make MEPs more prone to demand. In the end, the Frenchman should probably be waved through, the man was already Minister of Finance and Economics. There is no doubt about its competence in leading an important EU department - so far at least.
There remains the time problem. As a result, theories that are currently rather off-topic are currently booming in Brussels, as Leyens Commission could still manage without major damage. Experts consider it possible that von der Leyen will start with 27 instead of 28 commissioners - or only 26 - should Britain leave the EU before taking office.
Although it is legally stipulated that the number of commissioners must correspond to the number of member states. "But the European Parliament could also ratify a commission of 27 members, provided that this is only a temporary measure," said Jean-Claude Piris, former head of the legal service of the European Council, SPIEGEL.
Christian Callies of the FU Berlin warns against such maneuvers. "It can not be ruled out that all decisions of a commission that has come into office in this way can be challenged in retrospect before the European Court of Justice," says the law professor. "I would warn against that in any case."