The European Commission chief has too many men seeking too few prestigious economic roles.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is meeting the Czech Prime Minister today (19 August) in Brussels – and the talks might not be easy.
Like many in the Brussels bubble, von der Leyen had a few weeks off for the summer after securing support from MEPs to serve a second term at the helm of the EU executive, but Fiala’s visit heralds the start of a tricky few weeks for her, as she seeks to balance too many men seeking too few economic positions.
Von der Leyen needs to find 26 other names to fill out the Commission’s senior ranks.
The conversations she’ll have with Petr Fiala, who is hoping his male candidate will secure a prestigious economic position for the next five years, are emblematic of the puzzle she’ll face.
Von der Leyen’s first task is to ensure she gets at least one name from each of the EU member states – which is not easy for countries such as Belgium and Bulgaria, which are currently wrangling over their internal politics after June elections.
Later this week, on 22 August, she’ll meet Marcel Ciolacu, Prime Minister of Romania, another country that hasn’t yet said who it will send to Brussels.
Once she does know all the candidates, she’s got to carve out and match a policy brief for each commissioner, while also ensuring some measure of political and gender balance among her senior staff.
Economic fight
Fiala has been outspoken about his desire to secure Czechia a plum job in the next mandate, posting on X that the country’s portfolio should reflect its position “at the centre of Europe”.
He’s now proposed Jozef Síkela for the post, and may hope that Síkela’s current ministerial post dealing with energy, industry and trade puts him in prime place to secure an economic role, to boost competitiveness, or as the EU’s influential antitrust czar.
The problem is that everybody else is fighting for the same positions. The major economic roles that determine the course of the EU’s single market are, in this cycle as in others, the most fiercely contested.
EU member states will likely kick up a fuss if denied a prestigious enough brief. MEPs at the European Parliament, who must endorse the Commission as a whole, will closely examine the overall balance of different political groups, and of women – and that’s where von der Leyen may face her most significant challenge.
You’ve got male
In 2019, as the EU executive’s first female president, von der Leyen pledged to ensure “full gender equality” in her college of Commissioners, and this year has asked for governments – apart from those renominating an incumbent – to propose both a female and male candidate, so that she has the final decision of which to pick.
So far, zero have acceded to von der Leyen’s request – and most of the names that have been put forward, including Czechia’s, are men.
The most von der Leyen can do is promise them a better portfolio if they put forward a woman – but governments will be keen to guard the power to select a name, given to them by the EU’s treaties.
Some may also argue they’ve a good track record in sending heavyweight women, such as Czechia’s Věra Jourová or Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager, removing the pressure for them to do so again.
It’s not clear how much von der Leyen will square that circle – but already the Brussels rumour mill is suggesting that she might be compelled to sacrifice some candidates for a female alternative, such as by replacing incumbent Hungarian Oliver Várhelyi with MEP Enikő Győri.
