Vella asked to partially give up portfolio to UK’s new EU Commissioner

Karmenu Vella is one of three European Commissioners who have reportedly been asked to give up part of their policy portfolios to the UK’s incoming member of the EU executive.

Vella, Malta’s representative on the European Commissioner, is currently in charge of the environment, maritime affairs and fisheries. However, Politico Europe quoted sources as saying that he, along with Poland’s Elzbieta Bienkowska and Spain’s Miguel Arias Canete, have been approached by Martin Selmayr, chief of staff to EC President Jean-Claude Juncker, to cede up part of their portfolio to Julian King.

King, the UK’s ambassador to France, will take over from Jonathan Hill, who resigned from the European Commission shortly after the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU. However, Hill’s financial services portfolio has been reassigned and King is widely expected to be given a much less powerful position.

In one of his last acts as British prime minister, David Cameron nominated King as Hill’s replacement and requested that he be given the environment portfolio, currently the remit of Karmenu Vella.

If given the position, King would oversee the EC’s environment directorate for as long as the UK remains in the EU or until the end of the current Commission mandate, whichever comes first.

Juncker is reportedly set to make a decision on King’s portfolio this week, and the proposal will be subjected to ratification by the European Parliament.

An architect by profession, Vella served as a Labour MP in the Maltese Parliament from1976 until 2014, when Joseph Muscat nominated him as the country’s representative on the European Commissioner.

Known colloquially as ‘Il-Guy’, Vella has served as tourism minister, industry minister and public works minister under Labour governments between 1981 and 2013.