“None of the names mentioned by the media” are in the running to become the next Cypriot European Commissioner, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.
Speaking to CyBC radio, he was asked whether former finance minister and current Disy MP Harris Georgiades, a name widely tipped by the media in Cyprus to be up for the role, was included on the list.
He responded that “the names that have been heard do not correspond with reality”.
Georgiades corroborated Christodoulides’ statements to the same radio station, saying Christodoulides had “not reached out” to him.
He added that he had also not approached Christodoulides as his “political leanings” are not the same as those of Christodoulides.
Christodoulides also mentioned that he has two names in mind and that he has held discussions with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen over which portfolio the Cypriot commissioner will be given.
He added that in this regard, “everything depends” on the European parliament’s ratification of the European Council’s nomination of von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president.
The European parliament will vote on whether to ratify von der Leyen’s nomination on July 18.
Speculation regarding the name of the next Cypriot commissioner has been rife since Friday, when Stella Kyriakides, who was nominated by then President Nicos Anastasiades in 2019 and served a full term as EU Health Commissioner, announced she would step down.
Looking at the names of potential nominees before the election, news website Politico had listed four names as being “in the mix” for the job: Kyriakides and Georgiades, who have both now been ruled out, former Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis, who served between 2013 and 2020, and incumbent Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos.
In addition, they said it is possible the Cypriot government will hope its nominee will once again be given the health portfolio, while noting that “the Cypriot shipping lobby is pushing for the transport portfolio”, which is currently held by Romania’s Adina Valean.
However, Valean was elected to the European Parliament on June 9 as part of the National Coalition for Romania and will now sit as an MEP for the centre-right European People’s Party. She will therefore be unable to return as commissioner, possibly paving the way for a Cypriot replacement.
The next European Commission will be the fifth in which Cyprus has been an EU member and thus been able to nominate a commissioner.
The country’s first European commissioner was Markos Kyprianou, son of late President Spyros Kyprianou, who served as health commissioner from 2004 until 2007 when he was replaced by Androulla Vassiliou, wife of former president George Vassiliou.
Vassiliou remained a commissioner but was given the education brief after the 2009 European elections.
After the 2014 European elections, then President Nicos Anastasiades nominated Christos Stylianides to serve as the Cypriot commissioner. He became the humanitarian aid commissioner, and remained in post until the 2019 European elections, after which Anastasiades nominated Kyriakides. Stylianides is now Greece’s shipping minister.
The next European Commission will be the first which asks 27 member states to nominate a commissioner, following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union in 2020.
However, the current commission was never made up of more than 27 members, as the British government flatly refused to appoint a commissioner in 2019 when the country was a member state.
