Ljubljana – In Slovenia, the process of appointing a candidate for the new European Commission is still not completed, after the government proposed former ambassador Marta Kos for this position on Monday. The government is waiting for the non-binding opinion of the parliamentary committee for EU affairs, but the committee's chairman Franc Breznik from the opposition SDS conditions the session on obtaining additional materials and explanations about the reasons for the replacement of the initial candidate Tomaž Vesel. Among these is also believed to be a letter from the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to Prime Minister Robert Golob.
On Thursday, Breznik said on the show Tarča on Televizija Slovenija that he also wrote to the President of the European Commission. He asked her to send him the letter in which she supposedly demanded from the Slovenian government to replace the commission candidate Tomaž Vesel, who withdrew his candidacy on September 6. The government then proposed former ambassador Marta Kos as the new candidate for European Commissioner on Monday.
On Thursday, at the sidelines of the government coalition summit, Golob said that the committee received all the documentation based on which the government decided on Kos, but he would not comment on confidential talks.
There are also pressures on the government and the commission from some Slovenian MEPs. MEP Milan Zver (EPP/SDS) addressed the commission with a request to publish all documents related to the appointment process of the Slovenian commissioner, while Romana Tomc (EPP/SDS) listed a series of criticisms about Kos for Euronews. On the contrary, Matjaž Nemec (S&D/SD) called for support for Kos in the interest of Slovenia and its further positioning in the EU.
Von der Leyen still intends to present her next commission team to the European Parliament on Tuesday, as announced at the beginning of the week, said the commission's spokesperson Eric Mamer today, in light of the complications with the appointment of a new commissioner candidate from Slovenia. There is still a lot of time until Tuesday, he said. (September 13)