The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, presented her political guidelines and the composition of her team for the European Commission 2024-2029 at the press conference held yesterday morning.
All proposed candidates will be obliged to participate in a public discussion in the European Parliament. After that, the Parliament votes on the proposed composition, and if the proposal is approved, the European Council officially appoints the new leadership of the Commission.
The composition published by the European Commission looks like this:
- Ursula von der Leyen (Germany): European Commission President
- Teresa Ribera (Spain): Executive Vice-President for the Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. Acts as competition commissioner.
- Henna Virkkunen (Finland): Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
- Stéphane Séjourné (France): Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy
- Roxana Mînzatu (Romania): Executive Vice-President for People, Skills and Preparedness
- Raffaele Fitto (Italy): Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms
- Kaja Kallas (Estonia): High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy
- Magnus Brunner (Austria): Internal Affairs and Migration
- Hadja Lahbib (Belgium): Preparedness, Crisis Management. Equality
- Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria): Startups, Research and Innovation
- Dubravka Šuica (Croatia): Mediterranean. Responsible for relations with Mediterranean neighbors in Middle East and North Africa.
- Costas Kadis (Cyprus): Fisheries and Oceans
- Jozef Síkela (Czech Republic): International Partnerships. This covers international development spending and the EU’s rival to China’s “Belt and Road Initiative.”
- Dan Jørgensen (Denmark): Energy and Housing
- Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Greece): Sustainable Transport and Tourism
- Olivér Várhelyi (Hungary): Health and Animal Welfare
- Michael McGrath (Ireland): Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law
- Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia): Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification
- Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania): Defense and Space
- Christophe Hansen (Luxembourg): Agriculture and Food
- Glenn Micallef (Malta): Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport
- Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands): Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth
- Piotr Serafin (Poland): Budget, Anti-fraud, Public Administrations
- Maria Luís Albuquerque (Portugal): Financial Services
- Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia): Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency
- Marta Kos (Slovenia): Enlargement*
- Jessika Roswall (Sweden): Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy
At the press conference, Ursula von der Leyen outlined the six priorities set for this mandate: strengthening technology, security and democracy; a more robust industrial strategy; further development of European regions; greater social prosperity through education; defense of the European social model; and a more dynamic external dimension.
The European Commission envisioned in this way will have a more connected structure, said von der Leyen. All executive vice presidents will have a portfolio within which they will have to cooperate with the commissioners. She emphasized that “all commissioners must work together.”
However, as reported by POLITICO, Von der Leyen gave more information to the journalists than the high-ranking members of parliament who had previously attended a meeting with her, the topic of which was supposed to be the list of candidates. She allegedly refused to tell the MEPs her plans in full, and then presented them to the media at a press conference right after the meeting. A large number of MPs took to social media on this occasion, describing the situation as “arrogance and lack of respect” for the institution of the European Parliament.
*at this moment, Marta Kos is still not an approved candidate of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, after the nominated candidate Tomaž Vesel dropped out.
Featured image: Frederick Florin/AFP
