Just a few days after the approval by the European Parliament of Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as the next president of the European Commission, the cabinet yesterday agreed to approve a proposal by the Prime Minister to re-nominate Joe Borg to serve for the next five years as EU Commissioner.
A spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister confirmed to The Times that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi proposed to re-nominate Dr Borg for the next five-year period after holding talks with Mr Barroso.
The Prime Minister discussed Dr Borg's re-nomination with Mr Barroso in a telephone conversation last Friday. The spokesman also confirmed that Dr Gonzi and Mr Barroso discussed the possible areas of responsibility Dr Borg would be assigned.
The spokesman, however, declined to give more details about the portfolios mentioned.
The re-nomination was necessary because a new Commission is appointed every five years. The new commission will start functioning next November and the Maltese government had up to August 20 to nominate a commissioner.
Dr Borg is the first Maltese serving as EU Commissioner and has been shadowing Development Commissioner Paul Nielson since last May, when Malta joined the EU.
Dr Borg, 52, was Foreign Minister during the most crucial phase of negotiations with the EU. He now resides in Brussels and up till the end of October will continue working as the second in command in the Development portfolio.
However, Dr Borg is not expected to be re-nominated for the same post as it is a known secret that Dr Borg is not keen to keep this area of responsibility and would prefer to be given another field where he has more experience. In an interview a few days ago Dr Borg said he would be asking Mr Barroso to be assigned an area related to the external relations dimension of the EU.
The new commission will be the first with 25 members, one nominated by each member state and all commissioners will have their own area of responsibility to follow. This is not the case at present. Due to the fact that the new member states joined the Union, six months prior to the end of the present commission's term, it was decided that all 10 'new' commissioners would be seconded with a present commissioner in order to gain experience.
In a press conference after the Parliament's approval of his nomination last week, Mr Barroso announced that he wanted to present his new team in the week of August 23.
He said he expected member states to give him a choice by nominating more than one possible commissioner. He also urged national governments to nominate female candidates, as he wanted to have at least eight women in his new team.
The states have until August 20 to nominate their commissioners.
Meanwhile, the majority of member states have already declared their intentions and it seems that the new EU Commission will be joined by quite a number of heavyweights in the European political arena.
The names mentioned include former Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spilda, Belgium's Foreign Affairs Minister Louis Michel, Italy's European Affairs Minister Rocco Buttiglione, Austria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Benita Ferrero Waldner and Ireland's Minister of Finance, Charlie McCreevy.
The UK nomination sparked some controversy at home when Prime Minister Tony Blair named Peter Mandelson, a close ally and former secretary of state for Trade and Industry, as England's future EU Commissioner.
Some of the present EU Commissioners are thought to be re-nominated by their respective countries. These include Germany's Günter Verheugen and Swedish Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom.