site.btaEC: Aug. 31 Deadline for Nomination of New Commissioners Is Not Legally Binding

The European Commission explained Monday that the deadline set by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for nominations for future commissioners is not legally binding. A commission spokesman made the clarification after Belgium failed to meet the end-of-August deadline.

The spokesman did not confirm how many nominations had been received by the deadline, nor what the number of women put forward was.

In an effort to achieve gender parity among new commissioners, von der Leyen has asked that each EU country nominate one man and one woman.

The spokesperson clarified that the European Parliament had invited the President of the Commission to a meeting on September 11 so that the leadership of the European Parliament could be briefed on the likely composition of the next Commission. In his words, this meeting could not be confirmed by the Commission at the moment.

European media outlets have reported that most EU countries have nominated men as commissioners, making it hard for Ursula von der Leyen to achieve her goal of gender equality in her new team.

The spokesman noted today that the goal is to have the new Commission confirmed by the day the current team's mandate expires. The current commissioners started their work in December 2019.

Bulgaria has complied with the EU Commission President's request and put forward two nominations: Ekaterina Zaharieva (nominated by GERB-UDF) and Julian Popov (nominated by Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria).