UK won’t nominate EU commissioner before election

The U.K. will not nominate an EU commissioner until after its December 12 national election, Britain’s Ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow wrote in a letter to the European Commission on Wednesday night, according to officials in Brussels and London.

EU leaders have repeatedly asked the U.K. to pick a candidate and made this a condition of granting a Brexit extension until January 31, 2020 when they met last month — before MPs in the U.K. parliament voted in favour of the December ballot.

But official general election guidance from the U.K.’s Cabinet Office says the government should not put forward candidates for senior international appointments, including to European institutions, during an election period.

Britain’s decision not to put forward a candidate, despite repeated requests from Brussels, until after the vote leaves Brussels wrestling with a thorny legal problem and raises the possibility of a further delay in the new European Commission taking office.

Via Politico