By Charlotte Van Campenhout and Foo Yun Chee

AMSTERDAM, August 22 (Reuters) – European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic will become the EU’s interim climate officer after the resignation of Frans Timmermans, who is running as a candidate in the Dutch national elections in November, the European Union Executive announced on Tuesday.

Timmermans, who is the driving force behind the EU’s Green Deal, a broad package of policies on climate change and the environment, and whose European Commission term ends in November next year, will run as the candidate for the Dutch Greens and the Labor Left. .to the general election on 22 November.

Sefcovic, 57, is seen by many in Brussels as a heavyweight akin to Timmermans for the upcoming international climate negotiations.

Slovakia oversees EU relations with the UK and a joint EU gas purchasing program to replace Russian supplies, and is responsible for the bloc’s energy policy.

He was appointed as Commissioner for Education and Culture in 2009.

Sefcovic will temporarily take over the Climate portfolio until the appointment of a Dutch commissioner, according to Community Executive. It is not yet clear whether the new Dutch representative will take the same position.

“Following a successful legislative phase, Executive Vice President Sefcovic’s focus will be on the successful deployment of the European Green Deal as a European growth strategy,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

“The Commission will strengthen multilateral Green Deal diplomacy to consolidate European leadership on renewable energy and global energy efficiency targets,” he added.

Sefcovic will face his first major test at the United Nations climate negotiations in November, where countries will have to assess whether they have failed to tackle climate change and agree on a plan to get back on track. Timmermans played a key role in reaching the agreement at last year’s COP27 summit.

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Von der Leyen asked the Netherlands to put forward a candidate to replace Timmermans as commissioner.

Timmermans, who speaks English, German, French, Italian and Russian in addition to his native Dutch, is a well-known figure in the Netherlands, having served as foreign minister from 2012 to 2014.

After spending nearly a decade in Brussels, Timmermans will stand in the first Dutch election since 2006 in which outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte will not lead his conservative VVD party.

Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest-serving leader, shocked the country in July when he announced he would step down after his four-party coalition government failed to agree on immigration policy.

(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Foo Yun Chee; Additional reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Alison Williams, Devika Syamnath, Christina Fincher, and Emelia Sithole-Matarise; Spanish editing by Javi West Larrañaga)