The Slovenian government’s first choice, Tomaz Vesel, dropped out of the race on Friday.
Former diplomat Marta Kos has become the new Slovenian candidate to be European commissioner after the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyenpressured the country’s government to replace its original candidate, Tomaz Vesel, with a woman.
Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister Matej Arcon said Monday that the candidacy of Kos, a former diplomat who has been Slovenian ambassador to Germany and Switzerland During the last decade, it had been unanimously approved by the Government.
Slovenia is one of the EU governments to which President Von der Leyen had urged to replace its male candidate with a womanaccording to diplomatic sources. This measure is part of an effort to guarantee parity between men and women in the next College of Commissionerswho will direct the work of the Executive for the next five years.
Von der Leyen’s explicit request to present two candidates had been largely ignored by EU governments, a man and a woman, formulated in a letter in July.
Romania has also changed its candidate
According to Von der Leyen, without her efforts to urge Member States to appoint women, there would have only been four candidates to bid for one of the 26 positions of their next Executive.
Slovenia joins Romania in withdrawing its male candidates in favor of a woman, while it is believed that Portugal and Belgium have also opted for a woman as a result of pressure from the Commission.
In this way, Von der Leyen currently has with 17 men and 10 women in the race for one of the 26 available places, since Bulgaria has presented two candidates, a man and a woman. Although with this proportion the Commission would go backwards on gender parityrepresents a significant improvement compared to the list of candidates that was initially presented at the end of August.
Kos’s appointment comes just two days before Von der Leyen presents the proposed structure to the European Parliament for their new team, including the political portfolios they will have to lead.
Diplomatic sources affirm that the president has promised reward countries that appoint women with more ambitious portfolios. Kos was previously Slovenia’s ambassador to Germany, Latvia and Switzerland, bringing the high-level diplomatic experience that Von der Leyen seeks in her team.
“The first criterion is competence. The Commission needs competence, and competence means high level political experienceexecutive experience (e.g. former prime ministers, or former ministers or vice ministers) or at least high-level diplomatic experience or high-level work in the European institutions,” the head of the Commission explained last week.
