EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the nominees for the next five-year term of the College of Commissioners to the European Parliament at a press conference on Tuesday.
Current Finnish MEP Henna Virkkunen (NCP, EPP) was among the names, as she received the nomination for Executive Vice-President for Tech-Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.
Virkkunen is one of six executive vice president candidates among the 27-member College of Commissioners, which includes one from each member state.
The European Parliament will vote later on whether to approve each candidate.
"I will ask Henna to look at the internal and external aspects of security. But also to strengthen the foundations of our democracy, such as the rule of law, and protect it wherever it comes under attack," von der Leyen said in a press statement issued on Tuesday.
Virkkunen is also one of four women named as candidates for executive vice-president roles.
"As you will see, we now have 11 women in the College I propose today. That is 40 percent. When I received the first set of nominations and candidates, we were on track for around 22 percent women and 78 percent men. That was unacceptable. So I worked with the Member States and we were able to improve the balance to 40 percent women and 60 percent men. And it shows that — as much as we have achieved — there is still so much more work to do," von der Leyen said in her statement.
Finland was one of the few member states to initially nominate a female candidate, a move which Politico noted had increased the Nordic country's bid for a prominent portfolio.
Virkkunen was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 and previously served as Finland's Minister of Transport, Minister of Public Administration and Local Government and Minister of Education.
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