11/14/19, 1:46 AM CET
British PM Boris Johnson with U.K. Ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
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The U.K. will not nominate an EU commissioner until after its December 12 national election, Britain’s Ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow wrote in a letter to the European Commission on Wednesday night, according to officials in Brussels and London.
EU leaders have repeatedly asked the U.K. to pick a candidate and made this a condition of granting a Brexit extension until January 31, 2020 when they met last month — before MPs in the U.K. parliament voted in favor of the December ballot. But official general election guidance from the U.K.’s Cabinet Office says the government should not put forward candidates for senior international appointments, including to European institutions, during an election period.
Britain's decision not to put forward a candidate, despite repeated requests from Brussels, until after the vote leaves Brussels wrestling with a thorny legal problem and raises the possibility of a further delay in the new European Commission taking office.
Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen and her new College of Commissioners were supposed to take office on November 1 but their start date was delayed after the European Parliament rejected three commissioner nominees.
Von der Leyen’s team is now hoping the new Commission will be able to start on December 1, presuming confirmation hearings this Thursday for the replacement nominees yield positive votes. But the U.K.’s refusal to name a commissioner means the EU may need to delay the new Commission further, or take steps to prevent legal challenges to its legitimacy.
Lawyers across the EU institutions have been scrambling to analyze the potential ramifications of the U.K. refusing to put forward a nominee, with an eye toward avoiding more delay. Officials have been unwilling to discuss the matter publicly, but have said that some of the EU legal services have reached different conclusions.
A senior EU diplomat said on Tuesday: "So far there have been no signals that the British will appoint another commissioner during the current election campaign. We expect, however, that the appointment of the Commission will not be delayed as a result.”
On Wednesday, the Commission's chief spokeswoman Mina Andreeva refused to answer repeated questions about whether the new Commission could take office without a British member.
“We’re not answering hypothetical questions — it’s a hypothetical question,” Andreeva said.
“We have taken note also of an official position of the spokesman of the British prime minister saying that they will honor their legal obligations,” Andreeva added, referring to comments made by Boris Johnson's spokesperson on Monday. “So we’re here and if there isn’t an answer to the president-elect’s letter, again, we can talk about it. But at this stage, the question is not relevant.”
Legally, the U.K. is required to nominate a commissioner while it remains a member of the bloc but there have been several occasions in the past when the EU has functioned with fewer representatives.
