Jean Claude Juncker is struggling to encourage member states to propose women to join his team of commissioners.

He has said he will do all he can to encourage member states to get more women candidates; however he hasn’t said exactly how he proposes to do this.

Under Jose Manuel Barroso nine of the 28 commissioners were women, but sources close to Juncker have said that the current nominees being put forward fall short of this ratio.
When Juncker submits his fall line-up of 28 commissioners next month he is likely to be worried if only a handful are women.

Of the states who have declared their representatives, just Luxemburg has named a woman, Martine Reicherst as its commissioner designate. Meanwhile, the ex Finnish Premier Jyrki Katainen will be the interim Economic Affairs Commissioner to replace Olli Rehn, who left office early to take a seat in the European Parliament.

Germany and Austria followed by renaming their current commissioner representatives, Guenther Oettinger and Johannes Hahn, both men. And Malta’s choice is also a man.

Poland’s deputy Finance Minister Jacek Dominik will replace the incumbent EU Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget, while Italy has Ferdinando Nelli Feroci as its comissioner designate.

It will be interesting to see who the UK chooses for its representative. There are various names have been rumoured, none of which to my knowledge are women. The UK doesn’t have long to decide as nominees must be put forward in the next week.