If von der Leyen chooses the Irish, there is pretty much a balance between men and women.
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Mairead McGuinness and Andrew McDowell: Those are the two candidates that the Irish government is proposing to succeed Phil Hogan. Hogan resigned as Trade Commissioner for violating Corana rules.
McDowell was, until recently, Vice President of the European Investment Bank and is hardly known. This paves the way for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to choose McGuinness, who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2004 and enjoys a very good reputation.
Von der Leyen is keen to have gender balance in her Commission, and with the Irish, the ratio would be 13 women to 14 men.
Since neither McDowell nor McGuinness has much experience in trading, the Chosen One is unlikely to take over Hogan’s portfolio. In that case, there will be at least a double switch, whereby Valdis Dombrovskis could transfer to Trade as current Vice-President for Economy – he takes over the portfolio ad interim.
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