Von der Leyen delays unveiling of new European Commission until next week

BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has delayed her 26 commissioner nominees’ portfolios until next week, according to three officials with knowledge of the decision.

Initially, von der Leyen’s team was expected to schedule a meeting with the leaders of the European Parliament’s various political factions on Wednesday morning and then publicly announce the next College of Commissioners.

That meeting has been pushed back. Von der Leyen will now meet with the Parliament’s political group leaders on Tuesday Sept. 17 at 9 a.m.

On Monday, Slovenia put forward Marta Kos, a former ambassador, which helps achieve von der Leyen’s goal of a more gender-balanced Commission. However, the Slovenian parliament still needs to sign off on that change, which pushes back the announcement.

In coordinated statements, the European Parliament press service and Commission chief spokesperson Eric Mamer said the Slovenian parliament “will give its opinion on the proposed candidate for the post of commissioner on Friday. It is only after this step that the nomination of the candidate will be complete and official.”

“Based on this,” the statements said, “the Commission has asked the European Parliament to postpone” the unveiling of the portfolios.

An EU Parliament official, granted anonymity to speak freely, said: “I think they [the Commission] use the formality of Slovenian procedure to gain one more week for ‘fine tuning’ the attribution of posts.”

The timing of Wednesday’s announcement was never set in stone. Some European officials were debating earlier this week whether the meeting with political leaders in the Parliament would be an exchange of views or coincide with an official announcement of von der Leyen’s new top team.

But the widespread assumption was that von der Leyen would not miss Wednesday’s deadline, as that would be seen as an embarrassment.

The wait for the Slovenian parliament’s green light for its new nominee gives von der Leyen more time to consult with European capitals, her commissioners and others about the distribution of the top jobs in the next EU executive.

It’s a complicated puzzle, as von der Leyen has to take into account geographical balance, political balance and gender balance. Von der Leyen had asked European capitals to send both a male and a female candidate for her team of 26 commissioners (countries who let their outgoing commissioner stay on got an exception to this rule). Bulgaria was the only country to follow that demand, after which von der Leyen put pressure on countries such as Slovenia to change their candidate.

Stuart Lau contributed reporting.