For the European People’s Party (EPP), there is no doubt: the delay in the appointment of the Slovenian Commissioner-designate is the fault of the government of Robert Golob.
“The Slovenian National Assembly respects its own procedures, and this is perfectly democratic. We cannot blame the Slovenian opposition for the government’s mistake,” said Pedro Lopez de Pablo, Communication Manager of the European People’s Party. They also stressed that the delay would not have happened if the Slovenian Prime Minister had appointed the right person at the right time.
Radio-Television Slovenija reports that when asked whether they would support Marta Kos, they did not reply but said that they would ensure that all candidates were treated fairly according to their skills. The Slovenian EPP delegation (all five MEPs) does not support Marta Kos for a number of reasons. Not only is she not qualified for the post, but she is also accused of mobbing colleagues at two embassies, as well as of having a well-founded suspicion of having worked with the Directorate for State Security of the former Yugoslavia (UDBA) in the past.
Vesel “was resigned”
The Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) claims that Vesel did not resign at all, but that he “was resigned” after a letter from the President of the European Commission arrived in Slovenia. The exact content of the letter is not known, but it is known that Ursula von der Leyen ran into some problems when setting up the Commission because of her unwise promise that the future Commission would be gender balanced. She asked the heads of all member states to propose a male and a female candidate for the Commission, which did not happen. The so-called “arm-twisting” of smaller countries has begun, and Golob’s government seems to have made an extraordinary concession under pressure from Brussels.
The letter that von der Leyen sent to Ljubljana was obviously crucial in this. The Golob government has nominated a new candidate for the position of European Commissioner; the controversial Marta Kos. She first has to pass a hearing before the Slovenian National Assembly’s Committee on EU Affairs, but the meeting has not yet been convened because the Committee’s chairman, Franc Breznik, has not yet received the full dossier from the government. The National Assembly has received a statement on Vesel’s resignation, but not a letter from the President of the European Commission requesting Slovenia to replace its candidate for European Commissioner.
This is highly controversial. Each Member State has to propose one Commissioner on the basis of its own judgement, not on the basis of the judgement of the head of the European Commission. As we have already written in recent days, the request by von der Leyen sets a dangerous precedent.
“The Slovenian government’s decision to bow to pressure from Brussels and withdraw at the last minute an already confirmed candidate for EU Commissioner is proof that the Golob government is incapable of sovereign decision-making. Appointing candidates according to Brussels’ dictates bodes ill for the future protection of Slovenia’s interests,” MEP Romana Tomc commented on the matter a few days ago.
Ž. K.
