Teresa Ribera, Spain’s third deputy prime minister and minister for energy and climate, is prepared to take on a job in the European Commission after the EU elections in June, if she is nominated by her government.
Asked by Reuters whether she could rule out being Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s candidate for the Spanish commissioner after the June elections, Ribera said: “I do what my boss tells me to do.”
However, “it is not only up to me,” she added, asserting that it is up to Sánchez to make his pick for the next EU executive.
A Spanish socialist party source told Euractiv: “As far as I know, Teresa Ribera is an option for the commissioner, not a spitzenkandidat [for the Socialists in EU elections].”
Were Ribera to become the next European commissioner, Spain would lose a heavyweight in the government, and Sánchez a close ally. It would be the second top name to leave the Spanish cabinet for EU jobs, as former economy minister Nadia Calvino took over the European Investment Bank presidency on 1 January.
“I am very comfortable in Spain, and I think it is very important to continue consolidating the agenda in Spain,” Ribera added on the sidelines of an event in Madrid.
Ribera has become one of the EU’s energy and environment most influential policymakers and, during Spain’s EU Council presidency in the second half of last year, she was a key voice at the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai.
During the presidency, Ribera had the unenviable task of squaring the circle on the bloc’s power market redesign – a process started by Madrid, which had to sit out as an independent negotiator during the final phases. Ribera also helped conclude the negotiations on the controversial buildings directive, among others.
Few periods have created a closer-knit cohort of European energy ministers than the crises of the early 2020s. The last meeting of energy ministers under the Spanish council presidency turned into a tearful goodbye for Spaniards and Ribera personally, who had managed to get several thorny files across the finish line.
“She is a reliable, decisive person, a person of ability and knowledge of the European environment. She is absolutely ideal, but it is only in the hands of the president of the government [Pedro Sánchez], who has plenty of trust in her,” the party source added.
*Nikolaus J. Kurmayer contributed to reporting
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
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Source: euractiv.com
