Slovenia's Tomaž Vesel has withdrawn his bid to join Ursula von der Leyen's team of European Commissioners, after the Slovenian government came under pressure to nominate a female candidate, according to Slovenian press agency STA.
The decision was based on “talks” with von der Leyen that “concluded that they had divergent views on the functioning of the new European Commission”, STA reported.
The news comes after von der Leyen pressured smaller EU member states to pick female candidates to serve in the next EU executive, to enable her to achieve gender balance in the next team, according to diplomatic sources.
The Slovenian government had initially defied such pressure, saying in a statement on Tuesday that the coalition government remained “united” around Vesel's candidacy.
But on Wednesday, von der Leyen voiced frustration at EU governments for undermining her efforts to ensure equal representation of men and women in her next college, the 27 senior officials who'll steer the EU's powerful executive over the next five years.
“I have throughout my whole political life been fighting for women having access to decision-making positions and leading positions,” von der Leyen said on Wednesday in Brussels.
“And my experience is that if you don't ask for it, you don't get it. It does not come naturally,” she continued. “This is why I sent my letter. Because if I had not sent this letter, there would not have been a hook (…) to look at the diversity topic.”
In July, she explicitly asked member states to name two candidates, one male and one female. Only one country, Bulgaria, heeded that request, meaning the roster of candidates bidding to join von der Leyen's team stood at nine women and 17 men.
Von der Leyen also said competence and relevant experience were prerequisites for joining her team, adding that a European Commissioner needs a track record in government, diplomacy or EU institutions.
Vesel, a lawyer who previously served as the president of the Slovenian Court of Auditors, may have fallen foul of those criteria.
Von der Leyen has also asked the bloc's smallest member state, Malta, to propose a woman as an alternative to Glenn Micallef, the 35-year-old former Head of Secretariat of Prime Minister Robert Abela.
