German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been nominated to head up the European Commission, as nominations for key posts in the EU structures were approved unanimously on Monday by European leaders. The European Parliament is expected to approve the nominations despite some opposition. The chair of the European Parliament will most likely be nominated on Wednesday, according to Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD), who has been in Brussels since Sunday along with other European leaders tasked with deciding on nominees for the posts. He added that current European Commission Vice-president for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič is a joint candidate of the Visegrad Four (V4: Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) for the post of vice-chair of the European Commission. Commenting on von der Leyen's nomination, Pellegrini stated: "I'm convinced that she's a good candidate with broad outlook... a skilful lady who can bring new dynamics and shed new light on the Union's future." In other nominations, France's Christine Lagarde, who currently serves as Managing Director and Chairwoman of the International Monetary Fund, was proposed for the presidency of the European Central Bank, with Belgium's Charles Michel being nominated for European Council president and Spain's Josep Borrell for the EU's foreign affairs chief.
According to the Slovak opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), the nominations for European Council president, foreign affairs chief and European Central Bank president don't take into account the need for regional balance, as there isn't a single representative of new EU-member countries among them. "The result of this pan-European 'compromise', which [Slovak] Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini also signed, is that the 'us and them, old versus new and East versus West' concepts will grow even deeper roots in Slovakia," said SaS MP Martin Klus. Head of the party Richard Sulík is of the opinion that the result is the worst thing that could happen to the EU at this time. "The democratic process of the election has been annulled," he said. According to Sulík, Pellegrini had no vision of how the top EU posts should be filled. "He went to the EU-leaders summit with only one aim: to get an arrangement that would secure some post for Smer-SD's unsuccessful presidential candidate Maroš Šefčovič," stated the party.
