Spain's Ribera doesn't rule out EU Commission job

By Pietro Lombardi

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Energy and Climate Minister Teresa Ribera on Thursday did not exclude that her future could be in Brussels as part of the European Union executive after the upcoming European elections.

Asked whether she could rule out being Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's candidate commissioner after the June elections, Ribera told Reuters: "I do what my boss tells me to do."

"I am very comfortable in Spain, and I think it is very important to continue consolidating the agenda in Spain," she said on the sidelines of an event in Madrid.

"It is not only up to me," she added.

Ribera has steered Spain's green agenda since 2018, championing an energy model based on renewables like solar and wind while defending the phase out of the country's nuclear plants.

She has become one of Europe's climate change leaders and, since Spain held the EU's rotating presidency, was a key voice at the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai. Ribera also managed to get nearly all EU countries on board with the bloc's energy market reform.

After Economy Minister Nadia Calvino was picked to lead the European Investment Bank, Ribera is seen as a potential candidate to represent Spain in the European Commission thanks to her international profile and strong role within the Spanish executive.

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi, editing by Inti Landauro and David Evans)