Pedro Passos Coelho’s former finance minister, Maria Luis Albuquerque, could be the name recommended by Luis Montenegro’s government for the post of European Commissioner. The news was brought forward by political In a very discreet way, Radio Observador also referred to this hypothesis on Monday and Wednesday in a news report, indicating that the name had been chosen but was being saved for announcement at the PSD Summer University, next week.
Portugal is one of five countries that have yet to formally name their choice for the body of commissioners that Ursula von der Leyen wants to be gender-equal, something that has proven extremely difficult. Of the 22 countries that have already announced their candidates (they will then have to get the approval of the European Parliament), only six have put forward women’s names, while the rest have put forward men – almost all of them in their 50s and keen to take charge. The governor Economic issues – and in some cases facing von der Leyen’s challenge.
The Irish prime minister, for example, made it clear that he was entitled to name whoever he wanted and that it was not up to the president of the European Commission, after the 27 member states received a letter in July from von der Leyen asking them to propose candidates, one man and one woman, to achieve gender equality.
The exception to this rule only applies to commissioners who are to be reappointed, as is the case with Valdis Dombrovskis, from Latvia, the current Senior Executive Vice President for Trade Portfolio; the Executive Vice President responsible for the Green Deal, Maroš Šefčović (Slovakia) or the Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands).
This is also the case for the current Commissioner Kaja Kallas (Estonia), who in this case is one of the six women nominated by the Member States, along with Teresa Ribera (Spain), Hina Virkkonen (Finland), Jessica Roswall (Sweden), Dubravka Sojka (Croatia), and Ursula von der Leyen herself, for Germany.
In some cases, what may happen is that there are two names secretly nominated by prime ministers, but only the name that is actually accepted or best for the job is revealed.
If Maria Luís Albuquerque is confirmed, it will be the second time that Portugal has put forward a woman’s name for the post, after António Costa nominated Elisa Ferreira in 2019. Elisa Ferreira’s name, who held the cohesion and reforms portfolio, also only emerged after Ursula von der Leyen called for the creation of an equal body of commissioners.
The two Portuguese women meet another important criterion for selecting names: government experience, to ensure a strong executive to deliver robust responses to the crisis scenarios that could occur in the next five years. Maria Luis Albuquerque was Secretary of State for Finance in Vitor Gaspar’s government during the difficult period Troika And then the Minister of Finance. Common the biography political More broadly, Elisa Ferreira was Minister of Environment and Planning in the governments of António Guterres, then Member of the European Parliament (2004/2016) and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Portugal from 2017 to 2019.
The names of candidates for the post of Commissioner must reach Ursula von der Leyen by the 30th, after which they will be interviewed by the Commission President, before being subjected to strict scrutiny by the European Parliament. In all processes, there are candidates who fail, often because of facts from their past or because they raise doubts about their commitment to European ethical standards.
Secondly, the President of the Commission has to distribute the portfolios and seek to achieve a balance between gender, country of origin and political group, which is a very difficult task, considering that most countries target portfolios related to economic affairs.
