Women, Center-Right Set to Dominate New European Commission

The President of the EC, José Manuel Barroso, has confirmed that one-third of the members of the next commission will be women.

"I have some good news to give today. The next commission will have nine women, one more than at present," Barroso told the EU Parliament during a regular question-time session.

Three nominations Tuesday – by Denmark, Malta and the Netherlands – completed the roster of nominees from whom Barroso will form his second team.

Barroso wants to announce which commissioners will hold what portfolios next week, setting the stage for formal hearings of the individual nominees with the European Parliament in the second week of January. That would be followed by a Parliamentary vote on the entire Commission, currently expected to be held on 20 January. Once the Parliament has voted, the new Commission can take office. That is expected to happen on 1 February.

The Czech Republic and Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva are reportedly vying with Sweden for the enlargement portfolio.

A late flurry of nominations of women – including two Tuesday, Denmark's Connie Hedegaard and Neelie Kroes from the Netherlands – may remove the imbalance of the genders as a fundamental obstacle for the Parliament. With nine women among the nominees, Barroso's new line-up has one more woman than in his first team. A range of senior female members of the Parliament had warned Barroso that a college of commissioners with fewer than eight commissioners could have faced difficulties securing approval.

The next commission will have a strong center-right bias. There will be 12 commissioners (including Barroso himself) from the center-right European People's Party, nine from the liberal group and six affiliated to the centre-left Party of European Socialists.

Barroso is expected to give new jobs to the 11 commissioners who have been nominated to stay on for a second term. Six of those served a full term: Estonia's Siim Kallas (administrative affairs), Luxembourg's Viviane Reding (information society), Slovenia's Janez Potočnik (science and research), Latvia's Andris Piebalgs (energy), Finland's Olli Rehn (Finland) and the Netherland's Kroes. The other five joined the Commission during its five-year term: Cyprus's Androulla Vassilliou (health), Italy's Antonio Tajani (transport), Lithuania's Algirdas Šemeta (budget), Belgium's Karel de Gucht (development) and the UK's Catherine Ashton (trade).

One commissioner – Ashton – already knows her portfolio. EU leaders last week selected her to be the EU's high representative for foreign and security policy, a post that includes a position as vice-president of the Commission.

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