The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, postponed until next week the announcement of the allocation of portfolios among the candidates for the 26 commissioners in the new European Commission, reports Politico, citing three unnamed officials familiar with the decision.

Von der Leyen was reportedly due to meet the leaders of various political groups in the European Parliament tomorrow morning, after which he was expected to announce the composition of the next Commission, but that meeting has now been postponed until next week when the European Parliament meets. in Strasbourg.

Slovenia confirmed on Monday that the country's former ambassador Marta Kos will be its candidate for European commissioner after Tomaj Vassel withdrew his candidacy, helping von der Leyen achieve his goal of equal gender representation in the EP. However, the Parliament of Slovenia has yet to sign off on this replacement of candidates, leading to a delay in announcing the next composition of the Commission. With the appointment of Kos, the proposed composition of the new European Commission would include 10 women out of 26 nominees for commissioners.

Von der Leyen previously asked EU member states to nominate both men and women as candidates for her future team of 26 commissioners, unless the current commissioner remains in office. Bulgaria is the only country to respond to that request, prompting von der Leyen to pressure at least five smaller EU countries to replace male candidates with female candidates. Romania recently named MEP Roxana Minzat as its commissioner candidate after initially proposing a male candidate.

All 26 commissioner candidates need to be approved by the European Parliament, and the next European Commission is expected to start work on December 1.