Madrid picks Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera as EU Commissioner

The Spanish government nominated the Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera as Spain's candidate for the next European Commission on Wednesday (28 August), EU sources told Euractiv's partner EFE.

The sources added that the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) sent a letter to von der Leyen informing her of Ribera's candidacy.

Ribera, who led the PSOE's EU list in the European elections on 9 June, was Sánchez's favourite candidate for the Brussels post.

Von der Leyen (CDU/EPP) had asked EU capitals to propose their candidates by the end of August. Despite her plans for a gender-balanced Commission, most EU member states have proposed men, with 17 men compared to seven women.

Once the nominations have been approved, EU lawmakers in the European Parliament will vet the future commissioners in a written and oral hearing to test each candidate's suitability and ultimately approve the entire executive.

Theoretically, the new European Commission will begin its work on 1 December.

Some names, including von der Leyen herself and former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the future High Representative for EU foreign policy, have already been announced.

The rest – which will have to be approved by the European Parliament – are coming in like a trickle, and while the full list is not yet known, only a few countries have yet to put forward a name.

While Portugal has just announced that it will nominate former finance minister María Luís Albuquerque and Denmark has said it will nominate Development Minister Dan Jørgensen, at the time of writing, only Belgium, Italy, and Bulgaria have yet to submit names before the deadline on Friday (30 August).

[Edited by Daniel Eck/Martina Monti]