MEP Dan Nica is one of the Romanian picks for the European Commission | Philippe Buissin/European Union Romanian prime minister picks MEP as new Commission nominee Dan Nica proposed as Rovana Plumb’s replacement, with Melania-Gabriela Ciot in reserve.

The Romanian government will put forward two names for the new European Commission to replace Rovana Plumb, a Romanian government official said.

Bucharest's choices are center-left MEP Dan Nica and Secretary of State for European Affairs Melania-Gabriela Ciot, the official said.

However, Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă said Tuesday evening that Nica is Romania's pick and that, "if a woman is required," Ciot will be proposed. For now, Ciot is Romania's reserve choice, she said.

Nica was put forward for the role in the summer alongside Plumb, but President-elect Ursula von der Leyen picked Plumb. However, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee rejected Plumb, who was slated to get the transport portfolio.

At a closed-door meeting of the Parliament committee in Brussels on Monday, MEPs voted by 13 to 7 to reject Plumb as “unable to exercise” her functions as commissioner. Plumb was called before the committee last week to account for two loans worth nearly €1 million that she did not declare in her original financial declaration scrutinized by MEPs.

Nica is a second-term MEP from the governing Social Democrats (PSD) and a former deputy prime minister and communications and internal affairs minister.

He was accused by Romanian corruption prosecutors of abuse of office when he was a communications minister, between 2003 and 2004, for deciding to lease Microsoft licenses from one provider, without opening a public procurement procedure, as required by law. However, the case was dropped because he was indicted after the statute of limitations expired.

Ciot's name was suggested during a meeting of the Social Democrats' executive committee on Tuesday afternoon. She's been a secretary of state for European affairs at Romania's foreign ministry for the past two years, according to her official biography.