The Slovenian government’s first choice, Tomaž Vesel, dropped out of the race on Friday.
Former diplomat Marta Kos has been named Slovenia’s new European Commissioner nominee after Ursula von der Leyen lobbied the government in Ljubljana to replace its original candidate – Tomaž Vesel – with a woman.
Slovenia’s deputy prime minister Matej Arčon said on Monday that Kos, a former diplomat who has served as Slovenia’s ambassador to Germany and Switzerland over the past decade, was unanimously approved by the government.
Slovenia is one of a handful of EU governments that Commission chief von der Leyen had urged to replace their male candidate with a female alternative, according to diplomatic sources. It’s part of a push to ensure gender parity in the next ‘college’ of Commissioners that will steer the executive’s work over the next five years.
EU governments had largely flouted von der Leyen’s explicit request for two candidates, one male and one female, made in a letter in July.
According to von der Leyen, without her efforts to urge member states to name women, there would have only been four female candidates bidding for one of the 26 seats in her next college.
Slovenia joins Romania in retracting their male candidates in favour of a woman, while Portugal and Belgium are also believed to have opted for a woman as a result of pressure from the top ranks of the Commission.
It means von der Leyen currently has 17 men and 10 women in the running for one of the 26 spots available as Bulgaria has put forward two candidates – one male and one female. While this ratio would see the Commission backsliding on gender parity, it is a significant improvement on the roster of candidates that initially emerged at the end of August.
Kos’s nomination comes just two days before von der Leyen is expected to present the proposed structure of her new team – including which policy ‘portfolios’ they will be asked to lead – before the European Parliament.
Diplomatic sources say that the Commission chief has vowed to reward those countries nominating women with more ambitious policy portfolios.
Kos was previously Slovenia’s Ambassador to Germany, Latvia and Switzerland, bringing the senior diplomatic experience von der Leyen is seeking in her team.
“The first criteria is competence. The Commission needs competence and competence means high-ranking political experience, executive experience – for example former prime ministers, or former ministers or deputy ministers – or at least senior diplomatic experience or high-ranking work in the European institutions,” the Commission chief explained last week.
