Von der Leyen names new EU Commissioners

As Christian-democrat Ursula von der Leyen (EPP) focus is on boosting the EU’s competitiveness and climate ambitions, external and internal defence of democracy and the EU in her next term from 2025 to 2029, she has for the first time nominated a Commissioner for Defence together with a trio of Executive Vize-Presidents who will lead her Clean Industrial Deal after confirmation by the European Parliament: Teresa Ribera (S&D, Spain) as the Executive Vice President for the Clean, Just and Competitive Transition will lead the Green Deal 2.0 together with former Dutch Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra (EPP) as  Commissioner for Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth, and Dan Jørgensen (S&D, Denmark) as Commissioner for Energy and Housing who back in 2019  led efforts to set some of Europe’s most ambitious climate targets in Denmark. Pro-Ukrainian MEP Andrius Kubilius (EEP, Lithuania) got the important new post as Commissioner for Defence and Space.

The other important Vice President jobs went to: former Finnish Minister of Education and Transport, journalist, and MEP Henna Virkkunen (EPP, Finland) who is von der Leyen’s favourite for the job as Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. After France’s most ambitious candidate, the former Commissioner for Internal Affairs Thierry Breton (Renew), withdrew from his nomination at short notice in a dispute with von der Leyen, Manuel Macron quickly made a subsequent nomination: Now Stéphane Séjourné (Renew, France), who is not quite so critical of industry, will become Executive Vice President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy.

After the EU Member States had initially not followed von der Leyen’s wish to nominate one male and one female candidate each, with the exception of Bulgaria, but instead largely nominated male candidates, the Commission President has now included all women in her new Commission. As a reward for the last-minute nomination of a female candidate, Roxana Mînzatu (S&D, Romania) will be appointed Executive Vice President for People, Skills and Preparedness instead of the Romanian Vice President of the EU Parliament Victor Niegrescu (S&D). With Estonia’s outgoing head of government Kaja Kallas (ALDE) as Vice President and High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, von der Leyen is strengthening her Russia-critical position.

In line with the distribution of seats in the European Parliament, von der Leyen also had to nominate candidates from the extreme right spectrum. Raffaele Fitto (ECR, Italy) was given the important Vice-President position demanded by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had not voted against von der Leyen’s re-election. As Executive Vice President for Cohesion and Reforms, he fills the post that Bulgaria would have preferred to fill with Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria). This is because the Commissioner for Regional and Cohesion Policy has oversight of the European Regional Development Fund, which accounts for a third of the EU budget. Zaharieva will have to make do with the post of Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.

Von der Leyen allocated the normal portfolios as follows: Before the expected far-right take-over of government in Austria at the end of September, von der Leyen nominated the incumbent Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (EPP, Austria) as Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration. Belgium’s former Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib (Renew), who was considered a bad choice in diplomatic circles, will replace former EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders as Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Gender Equality. Croatia’s re-nominated European Commissioner for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Suika (EPP) has been chosen as von der Leyen‘s Commissioner for Mediterranean. Cyprus  Education and Culture minister and biodiversity specialist Costas Cadis (no-party) was selected as Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans. Czech Trade Minister and “banker of the year” Jozef Sikela (EPP), who had been given good chances by the media to become the next EU Energy Commissioner got the post as Commissioner for International Partnerships. The former President of the European Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas (EPP), will become Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism in von der Leyen’s Shadow cabinet. Von der Leyen intends to award the post of Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, which is important for the future of biotechnology, to Hungary’s right-winger Oliver Varhelyi (Patriots), the previous European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi (Patriots). After Ireland voted against von der Leyen’s re-election, his Finance Minister, Michael McGrath (Renew), becomes Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law. Latvia’s EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (EPP) was renominated but for the post as Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification. As Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, von der Leyen’s EPP colleague Christophe Hansen (Luxembourg) is to implement the latest recommendations on the radical restructuring of EU agricultural subsidy policy. Hansen has not yet taken a position on genetic engineering issues. Malta’s Glenn Micallef (S&D) was nominated as Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport while Poland‘s Ambassador to the EU, Piotr Serafin might become Commissioner for Budget, Anti-fraud, Public Administrations while Portugal’s former Minister of State and Finance Maria Luís Albuquerque (Portugal) got the post as Commissioner for Financial Services. Slvakia’ third longest-serving European commissioner Maroš Šefčovič (S&D) was selected to become Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency. Sweden’s Minister for European Union Affairs of Sweden, Jessika Roswall (EPP), will oversee the future and update of the bloc’s bio-economy strategy as Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy while Slovenia, which replaced at the last minute the former president of the Court of Audit, Tomasz Vesel (no party) by Marta Kos (Renew), will fill the post of Commissioner for Enlargement.

The satisfaction of the member states in the selection process is not unimportant in the nomination of candidates, as von der Leyen wants a special budget from them – on the one hand to close the EU’s defence capability and on the other hand to close the funding gap for AI, cleantech and biotech SMEs with a European Competitiveness Fund.