EU chief's gender parity bid suffers blow

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will start her second five-year term, was dealt a heavy blow when most of the 27 member states of the European Union defied her instruction to nominate two candidates — a woman and a man — in order to form a gender balanced leadership.

Bulgaria is the only member state which nominated a woman and a man as instructed, while 17 states have submitted a male candidate only. Nine countries — Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden — nominated a woman only. Von der Leyen herself represents Germany, while Kaja Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister, will become the bloc's foreign policy chief.

The nominating by Belgium of its federal minister for foreign affairs and trade, Hadja Lahbib, announced on Monday, and Romania's swap on Monday of Roxana Minzatu, an MEP and former minister of European Funds, to replace MEP Victor Negrescu, a male candidate submitted earlier, have made the situation slightly better.

Von der Leyen earned big applause in 2019 by forming a commission with 13 women including herself and 14 men. It was the most gender balanced commission in the EU's history. She was also the first woman to become the commission president.

Interviews and hearings

In the coming weeks, von der Leyen will start to interview those candidates and assign them various policy portfolios. After that, the European Parliament will hold hearings for the candidates. It has been the case in the past that a few candidates will fail to win approval.

News media reported that von der Leyen is still trying to pressure member states which nominated male candidates to make the switch like Romania.

European Commission deputy chief spokesperson Arianna Podesta told a news conference on Monday that von der Leyen "has been very clear in what her ambition is, which is a gender balance college".

Outgoing European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, from Denmark, vented her outrage on Monday at the gender imbalance.

"Unfortunately it's a demasking of the lack of efforts when it comes to equal opportunities and gender balance," she told the press.

Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU Law at HEC Paris, a business school, said on X that "the next European Commission could be the most gender-imbalanced in two decades".