European Commission will ‘assess the situation in London’ for British candidate

European Commission will ‘assess the situation in London’ for British candidate
Credit: Belga

The European Commission “is going to assess the situation in London” as it still has no British candidate for the next team. 

It is only a few days until the European Parliament votes on the election of the team proposed by Ursula von der Leyen. 

“We still haven’t had a response. The Commission is going to assess the situation, and if nothing changes it will decide on the next steps when it judges it appropriate to do so,” a spokesman for the Commission said on Saturday. 

With Brexit now delayed until the 31st of January, the EU has told the UK (which is still a member for now) to nominate a candidate for the new team led by German politician von der Leyen. She will start her new position on the 1st of December. 

The UK has so far refused to name a candidate and has justified this via a domestic rule that says the UK doesn’t have to nominate a candidate for this type of position in a pre-election period. There will be a general election in the UK on the 12th of December. 

The European Commission has launched an infraction procedure against the UK for not meeting its obligations, in order to protect the decisions made by the new Commission. The Commission has given the UK until Friday to come up with an adequate response. 

The European Parliament will elect the new team in Strasbourg on Wednesday, after hearings saw three candidates rejected (from France, Romania, and Hungary). Now that her team is complete, von der Leyen has to get a vote of confidence from the MEPs. 

Prior to this vote, EU ministers have to validate the list of 26 Commissioners on Monday, with no British candidate. 

The Brussels Times


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