European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has appointed Teresa Ribera Executive Vice President of Competition and Clean, Fair and Competitive Transitionwhich makes her one of the heavyweights of her new team for the 2024-2029 legislature.
The third vice-president’s jump to Brussels will force Pedro Sánchez to make a new government crisis to replace him in the coming weeks. Ribera will be the new representative of Spain at the European Commission, succeeding Joseph Borrellwho has been vice-president and head of community diplomacy for five years.
Like the rest of the designated commissioners, Ribera must now pass the European Parliament review at a public hearing expected to take place at the end of October. MEPs will be tested not only on their knowledge of the portfolio, but also on their past history and possible conflicts of interest, as well as their pro-European convictions.
[El comisario francés Thierry Breton dimite tras ser apartado de la futura Comisión Europea]
If she does not get approval – something that has never happened to a Spanish candidate – the European Parliament could call for her replacement, but does not have the power to oust her individually.
Once all the hearings have been completed, the plenary session of the European Parliament must ratify the entire College of Commissioners. In this case, only a simple majority of votes cast is requireda much less demanding threshold than Von der Leyen herself required in July.
If there are no surprises, The new community executive will start work on November 1st. But any setback in the commissioners’ hearings would force everything to be delayed and the current team would have to remain in office.
Ribera is the most senior figure of the European socialists in the government team of Von der Leyenwhich a priori benefits from the support of a broad coalition composed of popular, socialist, liberal and green parties.
In deciding on the allocation of portfolios, the German company had to deal with a complicated puzzle, since it had to respect a whole series of political, geographical and gender balancesHowever, Von der Leyen ultimately did not achieve the parity she wanted because member states did not send her enough women.
The difficulties of the task forced him to delay the presentation of his team by a week, which also experienced a last-minute crisis with the surprise resignation on Monday of the French commissioner, Thierry Breton, who had been appointed by Emmanuel Macron repeat a second term. Breton accused Von der Leyen of maneuvering behind his back to replace him for “personal reasons” and accused him of a “questionable” style of government.
