Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says he sees better candidates for the European Commission than Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, the leader of the ruling Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (TS-LKD).
“I see better candidates, especially considering that this will not be a position of a foreign policy commissioner,” Nausėda told LRT TV’s Topic of the Day programme on Wednesday.
The president said that Lithuania’s desire to have a foreign policy-related post is ambitious.
“We want posts that are either economic or related to the enlargement of the European Union, and if the position of a defence commissioner is created, I think it would certainly be worth competing for it as well,” Nausėda said.
On Monday, Nausėda attended an informal EU summit in Brussels to discuss the distribution of key EU positions.
The president said after the summit that he would not be bypassed in negotiations on who Lithuania should delegate to the EC.
Landsbergis has been mentioned by the media and his fellow party members as one of the main Lithuanian candidates for a European commissioner. He himself has not commented on these rumours.
The Freedom Party and the Liberal Movement, the TS-LKD’s coalition partners, say they expect the conservatives to unveil their candidate for Lithuania’s European commissioner soon and argue that any delay will leave the country with an unimportant portfolio.
According to them, Lithuania is already too late because other Baltic countries have confirmed their candidates – ex-Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis is expected to continue as EC vice-president, while Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is tipped as the favourite for the position of EU foreign policy chief.
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