site.btaBelgian Nominee for New EU Commission Draws Mixed Reactions

Belgium has formally nominated outgoing foreign minister Hajia Labib as a member of the new EU Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, local media reported. This decision is getting mixed reactions, largely because it was a one-man decision made by the President of the Mouvement Réformateur party, Georges-Louis Bouchet, the reports say.

Media publications explain that in the course of the negotiations on the formation of the next Belgian federal government, it was made clear that Mouvement Réformateur should propose the next Belgian Commissioner. At the same time, the incumbent Belgian Commissioner Didier Reynders has expressed willingness to keep his job at the European Commission after losing the race for Council of Europe Secretary General for the second time earlier this summer. Following the announcement of the September 2 decision, Reynders expressed strong disappointment.

Belgian media today assumed that the decision on Labib's nomination was influenced by European Council President Charles Michel, also a politician from the Mouvement Réformateur ranks. Some observers have noted that Michel has thus achieved two objectives: to hurt his party rival Reynders, and to clear the foreign minister's seat in the next Belgian government, in which he seems to be interested.

Michel's mandate as head of the European Council expires at the beginning of December. Earlier on Tuesday, local media quoted estimates that negotiations on the formation of the new Belgian government will end after 13 October, when municipal elections are due.

The next EC is due to take office in December. Some observers quoted in the media point out that Labib could be among the commission nominees to be rejected by the European Parliament over mediocre performance as the face of the Belgian presidency of the EU Presidency at the start of the year.

According to Bouchet, it is her work for the presidency that gives a good argument for Labib's nomination for the EC.

Hajia Labib was a journalist and TV presenter before being appointed foreign minister two years ago. Her critics say that she is a "weak candidate", does not speak English "well enough" and that as a reporter she visited Russian-occupied Crimea on a Russian visa in 2021.