New EU Commission: From the Leyen crawls towards the goal

One can accuse Ursula von der Leyen of many things, but as far as her intention to occupy the European Commission to some extent equal proportions with men and women, the future Commission President does not let up. After French President Emmanuel Macron presented a man to replace her defeated Commission candidate Sylvie Goulard, the Leyen pressured the new Romanian government to nominate a woman.

The admonitions towards Bucharest were successful. On Wednesday morning, the government, which came into office on Monday, proposed two candidates - MEPs Siegfried Muresan and Adina Valean, formerly chairs of the Industry Committee. A little later, von der Leyen announces her unsurprising decision: the woman should become traffic commissioner.

This gives momentum to the stalled attempt for days, to lift the new EU Commission until 1 December. The timetable for the planned vote on the Commission in Strasbourg on 27 November is tight, and the operation to take office within a few weeks remains ambitious. On 12 November, the Committee on Legal Affairs is now to tap the contenders for possible conflicts of interest, and two days later the hearings with the political experts can take place. This leaves air, if one or more applicants have to detain - then on 18 or 19 November, if necessary, further hearings be set.

Whether everything goes as smoothly as it is currently planned, however, is completely open, stumbling blocks, of course, there are plenty.

• Many parliamentarians continue to find that the portfolio is too big for the French Commissioner. Macron's candidate, Thierry Breton, as Commissioner for Internal Market, will be responsible for three major Directorates-General and thus for future industrial policy, the digital single market and the tentative beginnings of a European armaments policy. It is quite possible that the parliamentarians forced von der Leyen to at least relieve the ex-boss of the French IT service provider Atos of responsibility for the Directorate-General Connect (communication networks, content and technologies). This would also reduce the risk of conflicts of interest.

• Others, such as the Green Sergey Lagodinsky, complain that the expansion portfolio is going to a follower of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbans. They demand that from the Leyen the Hungarian Oliver Varhelyi assigns the transport portfolio and the Romanian Valean takes care of the expansion instead. After all, it is difficult to explain how Orbán's husband wants to help the candidate countries in the Western Balkans to make the necessary reforms on the way to more rule of law.

After all, comes from the Leyen with the decision for Valean their goal to occupy their team in equal parts with men and women, again a little closer. Originally, the commission should have consisted of 13 women and 14 men, including Leyen. But the European Parliament let fall with the Frenchwoman Goulard and the Romanian Rovana Plumb equal to two women. France sent as a replacement candidate Thierry Breton.

Pressure on Romania

Since officially the governments of the member states alone decide on their commission candidates, the Leyen could officially only "encourage" the governments to nominate more women. Behind the scenes, however, the Romanian government may well have felt the pressure. Especially since the Leyens in their efforts, large parts of the parliament behind it knows: The Socialist Group leader Iratxe García called the women's quota on Wednesday a "clear condition" for their support to the European Commission. The Greens also pushed for a higher proportion of women.

The newly arrived government of Romania, which also stands on shaky ground domestic policy, had apparently little to oppose this pressure. The downside has EVP-man Muresan, who has little left to make as a good face to the bad game. "I've seen that all the time," he told the MIRROR. "I am happy in the European Parliament, as Vice-Chairman of the EPP, I have an important and busy task." The decisive factor is that Romania is well represented in the European Commission.

On the other hand, there is another problem that the Leyen excludes - the question of whether the British, who actually want to leave the EU by the end of January, will also have to name a commissioner by then. The legal situation sees it that way. Therefore, sent by the Leyen on Wednesday a letter with a corresponding request to London - with the request, ideally also to nominate a woman.

The fact that Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson complies with the request in the set by the Leyen deadline until next Monday, is considered quite unlikely, after all, the Brexit Prime wants to demonstrate in the election campaign so that he wants to leave the EU.

And what happens then? It is conceivable that the Commission will initiate an infringement procedure against the British if they do not comply with their obligation to nominate a Commissioner as an EU member until the start of the new Commission. From the Leyen, so the prevailing, but not uncontroversial legal concept in Brussels, could then start anyway - even without British Commissioner (in).