Romanian Rovana Plumb on Ursula von der Leyen’s draft list of future European Commissioners

The president-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has published a draft list of commissioners-designate provided by the Council of the European Union, which includes the name of Rovana Plumb, who was elected as an MEP in May 2019 and proposed by Romanian PM Viorica Dancila for a commissioner role.

Ursula von der Leyen has held interviews with each of the candidates suggested by member states over the past few weeks.

For now, von der Leyen’s draft list does not match each name with a specific portfolio, but these will be announced on Tuesday, according to an EC press release. Romania is likely to get the Transport portfolio, according to prior documents released by the Commission. The list will have to be adopted by the Council of the EU.

The Romanian government was criticized for lack of transparency in the process of making its commissioner proposals to the EC president-elect in August. Along with Rovana Plumb, PM Dancila also nominated Dan Nica. President Klaus Iohannis stated that he did not approve of the names suggested by Dancila, but that the PM did not want to make any changes. On August 20, Dancila met with Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels.

According to Digi24, unofficial reports suggested that Ursula von der Leyen also disagreed with the proposals made by the Romanian prime minister, but that she eventually approved Plumb’s name as she wanted to avoid angering MEPs in the Socialists’ group, perhaps hoping that Plumb would be rejected later after European Parliament hearings. Von der Leyen is said to have chosen Rovana Plumb over Dan Nica for the draft list because of her plan to have an equal number of men and women as commissioners.

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The European Parliament must then give its consent to the entire College of Commissioners, including the President and the High-Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission. This is preceded by hearings of the Commissioners-designate in the relevant parliamentary committees. Once the European Parliament has given its consent, the European Council formally appoints the European Commission.

Proposed list of Commissioners-designate for the next Commission:

Austria:                       Johannes Hahn

Belgium:                      Didier Reynders

Bulgaria:                      Mariya Gabriel

Croatia:                        Dubravka Šuica

Cyprus:                        Stella Kyriakides

Czech Republic:             Věra Jourová

Denmark:                     Margrethe Vestager

Estonia:                       Kadri Simson

Finland:                       Jutta Urpilainen

France:                        Sylvie Goulard

Greece:                        Margaritis Schinas

Hungary:                      László Trócsányi

Ireland:                        Phil Hogan

Italy:                            Paolo Gentiloni

Latvia:                         Valdis Dombrovskis

Lithuania:                    Virginijus Sinkevičius

Luxemburg:                 Nicolas Schmit

Malta:                          Helena Dalli

Netherlands:               Frans Timmermans

Poland:                        Janusz Wojciechowski

Portugal:                      Elisa Ferreira

Romania:                     Rovana Plumb

Slovakia:                      Maroš Šefčovič

Slovenia:                     Janez Lenarčič

Sweden :                     Ylva Johansson

Josep Borrell (Spain) was designated High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy by the European Council in agreement with President-elect Ursula von der Leyen (Germany).