Juncker tells EU leaders to pick more female Commission candidates

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the European Commission, is urging EU member states to pick more female candidates to serve on his top team.

Malta is among a number of governments to have nominated a man for one of the top jobs in the EU’s executive body, despite Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s commitment to have ‘the most feminist government in history’.

Juncker said a Commission without a strong female representation would “neither be legitimate nor credible”.

Muscat chose tourism minister Karmenu Vella, a Labour veteran, to be the country’s next representative on the European Commission.

So far, Malta’s commissioners have occupied the health and consumer policy portfolio through Tonio Borg, and before him John Dalli; and the fisheries policy portfolio through Joe Borg.

Muscat announced his nomination for the Commission when he carried out a snap cabinet reshuffle in a bid to remove the health ministry from Godfrey Farrugia, accused of underperformance. In the subsequent reshuffle he freed up the tourism portfolio for an eventual promotion to Edward Zammit Lewis, and nominated minister Karmenu Vella for the job.

Vella is the father-in-law of newly-elected Labour MEP Miriam Dalli, and has had extensive experience in the tourism industry.

EU leaders will discuss the allocation of Commission jobs at a summit in Brussels this weekend, with the focus expected to be on who will succeed the UK’s Baroness Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Juncker, the former Luxembourg prime minister whose appointment was opposed by UK prime minister Cameron, said he was unhappy with the gender ratio of the nominations he had received and was appealing to several EU leaders to reconsider them.

All other 27 member states – excluding Luxembourg – get to nominate one candidate each and they all have to be ratified by the European Parliament before taking office in November.

France, Germany, Spain, Greece and Ireland have also nominated male candidates, with Sweden and Italy among only a handful of the EU’s 28 members to have selected women.

“A Commission without a significant number of women is, in my view, neither legitimate nor credible,” Juncker told Austria’s Der Kurier newspaper.

“That is why I am continuing to insist with several heads of state and governments that they send me a female candidate.”

If there continued to be an imbalance between male and female nominations, he said he would “need to redress” this through his allocation of jobs.

“Female commissioners will then certainly have very good chances of landing an important portfolio or of getting one of the most sought-after posts of vice-president, acting as my deputies.”

Baroness Ashton was the UK’s first female commissioner when she was chosen by Gordon Brown in 2009. She has served as vice-president of the Commission as well as High Representative.