Ljubljana – In Slovenia, the process of appointing a candidate for the new European Commission is still not finished, after the government nominated 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 party, conditions the session’s convening on obtaining additional materials and explanations on the reasons for replacing the original candidate, Tomaž Vesel. Among these materials is said to be a letter from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to the Prime Minister Robert Golob.
On Thursday, Breznik said on the TV show Tarča of Televizija Slovenija that he had also written to the President of the European Commission. He asked her to send him the letter in which she supposedly demanded the replacement of Tomaž Vesel, who withdrew from the candidacy on September 6. The government then nominated former ambassador Marta Kos as the new candidate for European commissioner on Monday.
On Thursday, on the sidelines of the government coalition summit, Golob stated that the committee received all the documentation on the basis of which the government decided on Kos, but he would not comment on confidential discussions.
There are also pressures on the government and the commission from some Slovenian Members of the European Parliament. MEP Milan Zver (EPP/SDS) requested the commission to publish all documents related to the appointment process of the Slovenian commissioner, while Romana Tomc (EPP/SDS) presented a series of accusations against Kos on Euronews. Conversely, 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 intends to present her future commissioners team to the European Parliament on Tuesday, as already announced at the beginning of the week, despite the complications with the nomination of the new commissioner candidate from Slovenia, said commission spokesperson Eric Mamer today. There is still a lot of time until Tuesday, he stated. (September 13)