Vaidere to pick up Dombrovskis' mandate in EP

RIGA - Inese Vaidere (New Unity), a member of the previous European Parliament (EP), will take a seat also in the new EP, as Valdis Dombrovskis (New Unity) has decided to renounce his mandate, the Central Election Commission's representative Andrejs Vaivars informed. 

The Central Election Commission has received Dombrovskis' application by which he renounces his EP mandate. In this year's elections, Dombrovskis was elected to the EP by 220,402 votes. 

According to the results of the 2024 EP elections, Vaidere received the next highest number of votes among the candidates running on the New Unity electoral list. 

The Central Election Commission has received confirmation that Vaidere agrees to accept the mandate renounced by Dombrovskis. In the 2024 EP elections, Vaidere received 147,075 votes. 

Latvia held the EP elections on June 8.

As reported, Dombrovskis has been nominated for the post of European Commissioner for the third time. After the 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections, he was nominated and confirmed as EC Vice-President with responsibility for the euro and social dialogue in the Commission headed by Jean-Claude Juncker. After the 2019 EP elections, Dombrovskis was also appointed to the EC led by Ursula von der Leyen, where he is the Executive Vice-President with responsibility for the economy, as well as EU Trade Commissioner.

With his New Unity party also performing well in this year's EP elections, the party decided to nominate Dombrovskis for a third term as the European Commissioner, with the support of the parties forming the coalition.

In Latvia, the right to nominate candidates for the post of Commissioner is vested in the Prime Minister, and this post is currently held by Evika Silina, a member of Dombrovskis' party.

EU commissioners serve a five-year office term, with the current European Commission's term ending on October 31, 2024.