The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposes Wopke Hoekstra as the new Climate Commissioner. She says that after speaking with Hoekstra on Tuesday.
“Hoekstra has extensive experience in European affairs, he has been deputy prime minister of the Netherlands and foreign minister since 2022,” writes Ursula von der Leyen in a statement.
Hoekstra from the Netherlands would thus replace Frans Timmermans, who is returning to domestic politics in the Netherlands.
Timmermans, who resigned as EU Commissioner, was also Vice-President of the European Commission since he was for a long time one of the candidates to become the President of the European Commission.
The 47-year-old Christian Democrat Hoekstra belongs, just like von der Leyen, to the dominant right-wing group, the conservative EPP, in the European Parliament.
The appointment of Hoekstra may attract criticism mainly from the left-wing groups within the EU Parliament. Timmermans had strong support within the Social Democratic group, and he is returning to the Netherlands to lead the Social Democratic Party in the next election.