The Government is set to ignore a formal request from European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen that EU member states put forward the name of at least one woman for nomination as a commissioner.
The Government’s position has been that it will nominate former finance minister Michael McGrath and would not propose a second nominee to fill Ireland’s place on the commission Taoiseach Simon Harris last week confirmed that the Government would not bow to Ms von der Leyen’s call for two candidates.
The Irish Times understands that Mr McGrath will remain as Ireland’s sole nominee regardless of Ms von der Leyen’s letter making the formal request for two names.
Speaking after her re-election as head of the commission last week, Ms von der Leyen had said she would ask countries to put forward two names, a man and a woman, as their nominees to pick from to allow her to put together a gender-balanced team.
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The German politician has since written to EU countries including Ireland requesting two names, stating at least one should be a woman, a commission source stated.
Ms von der Leyen has said where countries put forward existing commissioners for a further term, as Slovakia, Latvia and the Netherlands intend to do, they do not need to nominate a second name. Her letter gave national governments until August 30th to put forward names.
At a press conference on Thursday, Tánaiste Micheál Martin gave no indication that Ireland will provide the name of a woman candidate alongside Mr McGrath, saying it was the “clear decision” of the Government to nominate the former finance minister.
Mr Martin said the Government “will respond in due course” to Ms von der Leyen’s letter. He added that “jurisdiction” for Ireland’s nominee for the commission is “within the Government’s realm”.
Government sources later confirmed that no other name will be put forward by Dublin.
[ Europe Letter: Second von der Leyen term to be one of compromise and criticismOpens in new window ]
Ms von der Leyen intends to interview candidates before deciding what portfolio to allocate each country’s commissioner. The successful nominees would then have to be approved by the European Parliament, which traditionally rejects at least one proposed commissioner.
Ireland is seeking a finance-related commission portfolio again, with outgoing Irish commissioner Mairead McGuinness having held the role responsible for financial services. However, competition for finance briefs in the next commission is expected to be intense.
Ireland’s chances of a prominent position could be damaged by the decision to ignore Ms von der Leyen’s request for countries to nominate two candidates. This is compounded by the fact four MEPs from Mr McGrath’s party, Fianna Fáil, voted against Ms von der Leyen’s recent appointment for a second term in a crunch European Parliament confirmation vote.
Defending the nomination of Mr McGrath last week, Mr Harris said the European Union treaties “do allow member states to decide their commissioner, and I do think it’s important that we have that right to adhere to the treaties”.
Saying that it was his “absolute determination” to work closely with Ms von der Leyen, Mr Harris said he believed the EC president is “a fair person who will want to assemble the best team”.
He added: “There’s been occasions when we’ve sent one name and that’s been a female. Or one name who was a man. On this occasion we are sending the name of Michael McGrath. That’s not to be in any way disrespectful to the view of the president.”
Mr Harris also said: “We’ve just asked our finance minister to not be the finance minister. He has stepped down from Cabinet, and he’s now preparing very intensively. I think it’s important to provide him with that certainty as he does that as well.”
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