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"We should appreciate this and set the internal disputes regarding the commissioner aside," Martinec told the STA on Wednesday, adding that harmonisation of the energy union was a completely new task at the EU level.

According to him, this is a great opportunity for Slovenia. "Instead of fighting over the commissioner, we should see what we have to do to prove that we have knowledge," Martinec said.

He meanwhile regretted that neither of the eight Slovenian MEPs was interested in joining the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Slovenia will have no direct insight in the field of energy, Martinec was critical.

Dragan Barbutovski, an expert on the EU and strategic communication, meanwhile said that the brief assigned to Bratušek was "high on the political agenda of the future European Commission and, it seems, of Jean-Claude Juncker's personal agenda".

"It is a brief that will be at the very forefront and with which many expectations are connected," he said, noting that the energy union was high on Juncker's list of priorities presented to the European Parliament.