MEET THE NEW COMMISSION!
By Drakoulis Goudis
20/09/2024
Following two long weeks where one delay succeeded another, full of drama, accusations and last-moment changes (with the highlight being Thierry Breton’s resignation/dismissal), Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her new Commission, subject to parliamentary approval for each member. The full letters describing each Commissioner’s instructions and what their portfolios’ entail can be found here, and the very brief summary is:
PRESIDENT
Ursula Von der Leyen (Germany)
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTS
Kaja Kallas (Estonia): Foreign & Security Policy
Teresa Ribera Rodríguez (Spain): Clean, Just and Competitive Transition
Stéphane Séjourné (France): Prosperity & Industrial Strategy
Henna Virkkunen (Finland): Tech Sovereignty, Security & Democracy
Raffaele Fitto (Italy): Cohesion & Reforms
Roxana Mînzatu (Romania): People, Skills & Preparedness
COMMISSIONERS
Piotr Serafin (Poland): Budget, Anti-fraud, Public Administrations
Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia): Economy & Productivity, Implementation & Simplification
Michael McGrath (Ireland): Democracy, Justice & Rule of Law
Magnus Brunner (Austria): Internal Affairs & Migration
Dan Jørgensen (Denmark): Energy & Housing
Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands): Climate, Net-Zero & Clean Growth
Hadja Lahbib (Belgium): Preparedness, Crisis Management & Equality
Christophe Hansen (Luxembourg): Agriculture & Food
Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia): Trade & Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations & Transparency
Jessika Roswall (Sweden): Environment, Water Resilience & Competitive Circular Economy
Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania): Defense & Space
Marta Kos (Slovenia): Enlargement
Maria Luís Albuquerque (Portugal): Financial Services
Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria): Startups, Research & Innovation
Dubravka Šuica (Croatia): Mediterranean
Jozef Síkela (Czechia): International Partnerships
Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Greece): Sustainable Transport & Tourism
Costas Kadis (Cyprus): Fisheries & Oceans
Glenn Micallef (Malta): Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture & Sport
Olivér Várhelyi (Hungary): Health & Animal Welfare
Take notes:
Austria getting Immigration: Austria has been convicted by the European Court of for illegally extending border controls has called for EU funds to be used for fences, has blocked the full integration of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen Area, and has supported Rwanda-style plans for outsourcing asylum application processing, has ended up with the portfolio of Internal Affairs and Migration. This choice could very well symbolize a right-wing turn in immigration policies, especially taking into account the "innovative operational solutions to counter irregular migration" recommendation of Bruner’s letter. It could also very well mean that von der Leyen challenges her critics from the right to put the actual work apart from constantly complaining. One of the most interesting portfolios to keep an eye on.
Solving the Italy issue: Von der Leyen on one side wanted to stay on the good graces one of the block’s biggest countries, and on the other side could not afford to enrage the Social Democrats and Liberals who were threatening to treat an important portfolio to an ECR Commissioner as casus belli. The German managed to satisfy both by giving Raffaele Fitto a Vice-President position but a rather unimportant and politically uncontroversial portfolio. Quoting Dave Keating: “in order to know which commissioners are actually the important ones, you need to know three things: Is the subject an EU competence? Is the subject politically sensitive? Is the president willing to give real authority on this subject?” Cohesion policy (rich regions funding poor regions) is important, but the commissioner managing it isn’t. Most of the work is done by the Directorate-General and there aren’t many landmark decisions to be taken outside of the initial budget talks, which the cohesion commissioner doesn’t have much sway over. So, while it’s an important topic, it’s not an important portfolio for a commissioner. Meloni will be happy though, because the (barely important) VP title for her pick is the PR she wanted for her goal to integrate ECR into the mainstream political parties and not the outcasts.
Spain’s jackpot: Teresa Ribera got the most-coveted prize, the Competitiveness Portfolio coupled with the Green Deal implementation agenda. Ribera will be in charge of the 90% emission-reduction target for 2040, the design of a Clean Industrial Deal, the promotion of circular economy and the fight against energy poverty, but most importantly, she succeeds Margrethe Vestager in the Competition Policy portfolio, meaning she has decision-making power over mergers, state aid and antitrust. The Social Democrats will be relieved with the outcome as well, given the fact that they also got Housing (Denmark) and Employment (Romania).
Baltic Power: The Baltics are rewarded for their steadfast support for Ukraine with important positions. Besides the already-known pick of Kaja Kallas as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Lithuanian Commissioner Andrius Kubilius is entrusted the Defense portfolio, and Latvian veteran Dombrovskis remains in charge of his economic portfolio (don’t be fooled by the “demotion” from Vice-President, the new 6 Executive Vice-President positions mean very little apart from a title). Kyiv is smiling, seeing two of the most vocally hawkish members leading the EU executive’s initiatives against Russian aggression.
Poland is back: Piotr Serafin, the Polish PM’s personal choice, got the Budget portfolio that Tusk wanted. Not only a huge responsibility yielding a lot of power (Serafin will be reporting directly to von der Leyen) but the most concrete proof that Poland is one of the main players now that PiS isn’t in charge, and Tusk one of the most (if not the most) influential politicians in EPP.
The Liberals: the Renew-affiliated Commissioners kept their flagship topics. Belgium’s Lahbib is actually a great pick for the Equality (LGBT Equality, Gender Equality) portfolio, Ireland’s McGrath has Justice and Rule of Law, another important issue for the European group, and of course Kallas has the big job. The question mark is France: after the dramatic exit of Thierry Breton, the French president was promised a bigger mandate for his pick if he played along and showed the door to the Commissioner von der Leyen couldn’t stand. Stéphane Séjourné has a portfolio which can be interpreted as being in command of pushing forward the Draghi report, or a mandate overlapping and butting heads with other portfolios like Ribera’s or Dombrovskis’. In the end, let’s not forget a portfolio’s value is highly dependent on the skills and ambitions of the Commissioner. Séjourné is definitely one to watch.
Ursula pays her debts: Von der Leyen rewarded the governments who abided by her instructions regarding gender balance: apart from Ribero, Finland’s Virkkunen gets in charge of Tech and Security, Romania’s Mînzatu gets rewarded with a VP position (not a big portfolio but it was never in the cards for Romania), Slovenia’s Kos gets the hot topic of Enlargement, and Bulgaria’s Zaharieva gets to manage the Horizons program.
And she doesn’t forget: Malta refused to switch to a female commissioner, and the candidate came with poor credentials, so he ended up with one of the low-importance portfolios. Von der Leyen also didn’t forget Várhelyi’s antics, and the former Enlargement Commissioner gets Health and Animal Welfare. By answering Keating’s 1st question, Health is a sector where national governments hold way more power than the EU, and to add insult to injury, von der Leyen moved the decisions regarding stockpiles and medical countermeasures in case of an emergency to Lahbib’s Crisis Management portfolio.
The new Commissioners-designate have now around a month to prepare for the European Parliament hearings, which is their ultimate test they need to pass in order to secure their positions. For some, this will be a mere formality, for others though, it can be the deal-breaker which will add another chapter to the autumn’s political drama in Brussels.