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29 October 2019

POLITICO: Von der Leyen nominates French and Hungarian commissioners


Ursula von der Leyen has formally nominated France's Thierry Breton and Hungary's Olivér Várhelyi as members of the next European Commission.

Von der Leyen, the Commission president-elect, also stepped up pressure on Romania to put forward a new nominee.

Paris, Budapest and Bucharest were all required to present new nominees after the European Parliament rejected their first-choice candidates, thereby delaying the start of von der Leyen's Commission, which had been due to take office on November 1.

Interviews with the new French and Hungarian candidates took place Monday evening and a letter was sent to the Council of the EU officially nominating them, a spokesman from the Commission's transition team said in a statement.

Both nominees will now face the European Parliament's confirmation process, which includes an examination of their financial affairs by the Legal Affairs Committee and at least one confirmation hearing from a specialist committee.

Breton, who was France's minister of the economy, finance and industry from 2005 to 2007 under Jacques Chirac, is a largely unknown figure in Brussels. His nomination to a beefed-up internal market portfolio prompted questions of conflicts of interest as he currently serves as CEO of technology company Atos, in which he owns shares worth about €34 million. [...]

Full article on POLITICO



© POLITICO


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