Denmark looks for new EU commissioner in a skirt

Mariann Fischer Boel, the Danish politician who has been the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development for the past five years is stepping down, and wants the prime minister to finds someone “in a skirt” to replace her.

The incumbent commissioner is resigning to spend more time with her family and has also cited age as a reason. The 66-year-old Boel claimed there was a need for the European Commission to contain more intelligent young women. “It would be a disadvantage if (Prime Minister) Lars Lokke can’t find a candidate in a skirt,” she said in a report in the Copenhagen Post.

Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has not made any statement on his choice for a replacement, although front runners are thought to include Food Minister Eva Kjaer Hansen and Ulla Tornaes, Minister for Cooperation Development.

Rasmussen has said than any decision would involve lengthy consideration and process. The changeover would also be a secondary concern to the upcoming Irish EU referendum which takes place in early October. These factors mean that no decision would occur for at least a month.

Boel’s replacement is widely tipped to come from within the ranks of the ruling Liberal Party, although Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller had claimed that the government has not discounted that the successful candidate could come be selected from the minority Conservative government party.