FF and FG remain at odds over top EU job
THE two main Coalition parties are still at loggerheads over which of them will select Ireland’s next EU Commissioner.
Outgoing EU Commissioner Mairéad McGuinness has stated that she would like to remain in the job.
However, Fianna Fáil is due to replace Ms McGuinness, a former Fine Gael MEP, as Commissioner for Financial Markets with its own nominee this year.
Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin insisted yesterday that the nomination of Ireland’s next EU Commissioner will be chosen by his party.
‘It’s agreed among the party leaders that that will be a Fianna Fáil nominee. The outgoing Taoiseach accepts that,’ he said.
Asked if Fianna Fáil will nominate both a man and a woman for the job, a gender balance that European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen asked for last time, Mr Martin said that had yet to be determined.
But the decision to allow Fianna Fáil to nominate the country’s next Commissioner does not appear to have been entirely accepted by members of Fine Gael.
Earlier yesterday, Public Expenditure Minister and Fine
Gael TD Paschal Donohoe said the decision would require ‘cooperation and compromise’.
He told RTÉ One’s Today with Claire Byrne: ‘That will be the job of the Taoiseach to work out with the Tánaiste. I’ll leave it to them. They will come up with the best and with a wise decision.
‘There are few people who know the value of what the EU Commissioner role is better than me, as President of the Euro Group. Equally what
Simon Harris has said – and indeed the current Taoiseach has said – is that all of these matters will be worked out in a co-operative and compromised way, and a way of compromise,’ he said.
Mr Donohoe added: ‘I’m sure there is an agreement between the party leaders over how that will be dealt with’ and said it will ‘not cause any challenge within the Government’.
Earlier this week, incoming taoiseach Simon Harris held his first formal meeting since being appointed as the new leader of Fine Gael with Mr Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.
He is expected to be elected taoiseach by the Dáil when it reconvenes on April 9.
Ms von der Leyen, the EU Commission’s first female chief, is also seeking a second term at the helm after the European Parliament elections in June. She will then put together a new cabinet.