The nominee for the European Commissioner for Enlargement in the next European Commission, Marta Kos, could become the sixth person and first woman to hold this office. Since 2010, all Enlargement Commissioners have come from Central Europe but during that period only one new country joined the EU. Supporters of enlargement would certainly like to see this trend changed under Kos.
The portfolio of the European Commissioner for Enlargement was officially introduced 25 years ago, when the Commission was headed by an Italian Romano Prodi, and the first to resume such a role was a German Günter Verheugen. To date, the position which implies “providing a credible perspective for accession to the Union and supporting the implementation of reforms in candidate countries” has been held by four other men – Olli Rehn (Finland), Štefan Füle (Czech Republic), Johannes Hahn (Austria) and Olivér Várhelyi (Hungary).
