EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is trying to strongarm several smaller member states into changing their commissioner nominations to women so that she can have the gender-balanced cabinet she vowed to set up. But disregarding countries’ sovereign choice for a PR stunt might not only affect her relationship with the capitals but also hurt any women in her administration, whose rightful place in Brussels could be questioned from now on.
The deadline for nominating members to the second von der Leyen Commission is just days away, and all but five countries have submitted nominations. However, many have chosen to ignore von der Leyen’s request to put forward two names this year—a man and a woman—so that she could come up with a mix of candidates that is at least 50% female.
Out of the 21 nominations so far, 16 are men. There is nothing to be outraged about: there is not a single clause in the treaties that would demand gender parity in the Commission, unlike those that guarantee member states’ right to nominate whoever they see most fit for the job.
But according to a report published on Tuesday, August 27th by Times of Malta, von der Leyen has asked the Maltese government to withdraw the candidacy of Glenn Micallef, who stepped down as head of the prime minister’s secretariat earlier this year to become the country’s next commissioner.
The sources say Valletta is reluctant to comply, but the prime minister’s office neither confirmed nor denied the discussion taking place at this point, saying only that “the engagement process is ongoing and [von der Leyen] is speaking to member states.”
The confidential Brussels sources also said that instead of Micallef, von der Leyen “suggested” keeping Malta’s existing EU commissioner in the role for another five years, Helena Dalli who had been in charge of the fairly insignificant equality portfolio.
One diplomat speculated that the reason goes further than just gender parity: “Dalli has had a borderline useless portfolio. She is easy for von der Leyen to control,” he said. “Having her for a second term would just ensure Malta is effectively irrelevant within the Commission.”
The Times’ sources also indicated that there are at least two other smaller member states that von der Leyen is trying to pressure into changing their minds and dropping their male nominees. She may also be in talks with the five remaining countries who haven’t revealed their picks yet, trying to influence their choice.
The problem is that von der Leyen has all the power she needs to strongarm her way toward having a gender-balanced Commission, regardless of how unethical and undemocratic it may feel. While nominating commissioners is up to each member state, it’s entirely up to the president-elect to distribute the portfolios between them. Those who comply could be rewarded with more influential ones (those dealing with economy or security issues, for instance), while governments who defy her can expect to be ‘punished’ with weaker posts.
That’s also the dilemma that Malta and others now face. “Von der Leyen is probably promising us a better portfolio if we agree to renominate her,” another Maltese diplomat told the Times. “If that’s the case, the government must decide: stand by our nominee and look strong but get a weaker portfolio. Or swap nominee, look weak but get a stronger brief.”
Von der Leyen’s obsession with gender parity might also be the reason why Italy has not officially named its commissioner pick so far despite the choice being so obvious. Virtually everyone in Brussels expects Italy’s highly experienced EU Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto to become one of the most experienced and influential members of the incoming College of Commissioners, but the fact Rome is holding out until the very last minute may point to a deeper discussion behind the scenes.
We know that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the biggest ‘winner’ of the EU elections, still feels cheated for being sidelined by the ‘losers’ (Scholz, Macron, and others) during the initial negotiations when they appointed von der Leyen for a second term. The only way the president-elect could make it right in Meloni’s eyes is by giving Italy a Commission vice-presidency overseeing several (preferably economic) portfolios. However now it is entirely possible that the price of claiming the desired post is dropping Fitto for a woman.
Besides the obvious sovereignty problem, several other issues with this approach are worth nothing. One is that even with a male-heavy College, no one could claim that women are powerless in Brussels: four out of the five top EU positions will be women—including the presidents of the Commission, the Parliament, the European Central Bank, as well as the foreign affairs chief—with only the European Council presidency given to a man (Portugal’s socialist ex-PM running away from the country’s biggest ever corruption scandal).
It is also worth noting that all her efforts to achieve a gender-balanced cabinet are probably just for optics. After all, it was her ‘Ursula coalition’ in the European Parliament that willfully sacrificed gender parity in the committee bureaus just to prevent the national conservative Patriots for Europe (PfE) group from taking their pre-allocated seats, despite the Parliament’s internal rules actually containing language that requires keeping the balance wherever possible.
What’s more, if von der Leyen does get her way, it could have disastrous consequences for any actually competent women in her team, who could (and probably would) come under fire for being a ‘diversity hire.’ Not that any of this would matter to ‘Queen Ursula.’ She only cares about gender when she personally profits, regardless of whether she might hurt women—along with democracy and sovereignty—in the process.
