Ilze Juhansone is set to become the European Commission’s secretary-general.
According to two Commission officials, the College of Commissioners will appoint her at its meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Juhansone has been acting secretary-general since the resignation of Martin Selmayr, the powerful previous incumbent, last summer. She has used the intervening time to move from outsider to front-runner in the race for the permanent appointment as the Commission’s most senior civil servant.
Formerly Latvia’s ambassador to the EU, Juhansone joined the Commission from her country’s diplomatic service in 2015, becoming deputy secretary-general.
Coming from a relatively small EU country and not having spent all her working life inside the Commission were seen by some as harming Juhansone’s chances of clinching the top job on a permanent basis. But she swiftly established a good working relationship with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whom she helped transition into her new role.
Other candidates who applied for the job included Jean-Eric Paquet, the Frenchman at the helm of the Commission’s directorate general for Research and Innovation, and Spaniard Daniel Calleja Crespo, who heads the environment department. Only directors general were allowed to apply, according to the job ad.
