[ad_1]
The cabinet is considering Mairead McGuinness and Andrew McDowell as candidates to replace Phil Hogan on the European Commission.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, will not be one of the Government’s candidates for the position of European Commissioner.
Andrew McDowell is a former advisor to Fine Gael and a director of the European Investment Bank.
Mairead McGuinness is the First Vice-President of the European Parliament and has served as a Member of the European Parliament for the Midlands-North-West constituency since 2004.
2017: Simon Coveney with Andrew McDowell, who has been selected as one of the candidates to replace Phil Hogan on the European Commission. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
The Cabinet held a disembodied meeting before lunch on Friday where ministers discussed the names of the two nominees.
The government will present the names of two candidates to replace Phil Hogan to the European Commission on Friday.
Hogan resigned as Ireland’s EU commissioner after controversy over his attendance at an Oireachtas golf dinner in Clifden, Co Galway and his moves in the country while visiting Ireland.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, asked Ireland to submit the names of a woman and a man, in accordance with her priority to seek gender balance in the commission.
The role that Ireland will play in the EU Commission to replace Phil Hogan depends on the “powers” of the names presented, the executive said.
[ad_2]