STRASBOURG, France (CN) — After weeks of political negotiations, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday announced her new team to steer the European Union through the next five years, with four of the top six jobs going to women and some right-leaning politicians rising in the ranks.
Her choice for the other 26 commissioner roles, which make up the bloc’s main executive arm, was a balancing act to reach geographical and gender fairness among the candidates proposed by each EU member states. Eleven of the 27 positions went to women, including Germany’s von der Leyen at the helm.
Each country has one seat on the commission, but they wield different political power depending on what roles they are assigned. Candidates must be confirmed by the EU Parliament.
The next EU executive’s core priorities are “strengthening our tech sovereignty, our security and our democracy,” von der Leyen told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
“This happens against a backdrop of competitiveness that we need for the twin transition: The decarbonization and digitalization of our economies,” she said.
But while climate change remains a key policy issue, von der Leyen said, security and competitiveness “have much more impact on the composition and the design” of her new team compared with her first term.
Competitiveness push
Among the six powerful commission vice presidents is Italy’s hard-right candidate, Raffaele Fitto — a close ally of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — who will be in charge of cohesion and reforms, in a nod to gains made by far-right parties in the June European elections.
France and Spain also received powerful economic portfolios.
French candidate Stéphane Séjourné, a former foreign minister and longtime loyalist of French President Emmanuel Macron, will be overseeing industrial strategy after von der Leyen ousted Paris’ first nominee, Thierry Breton, on Monday.
Ditching Breton, who had publicly clashed with von der Leyen, was part of a trade-off for France to keep an important portfolio in the next European Commission team, after Paris made clear it wanted a major post.
Séjourné’s task will be to boost European competitiveness. In a landmark report last week, former Italian technocrat Prime Minister Mario Draghi issued a call for the bloc to embark on a massive investment drive to help its economy keep pace with the United States and China.
Teresa Ribera, a Spanish socialist climate campaigner, was tasked with overseeing the bloc’s economic transition toward carbon neutrality and will also be the next antitrust chief, replacing Dane Margrethe Vestager, who last week scored a significant win for the European Commission over Google.
One of Ribera’s key challenges will be to ensure that Big Tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Meta comply with landmark rules aimed at reining in their power and giving consumers more choices.
Next to Ribera, the center-right Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra will handle climate change.
However, defending the environment slid down the list of priorities, with not a single commissioner named to oversee the EU’s Green Deal.
Other key economic advisers include Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic, who will be in charge of trade, and Poland’s Piotr Serafin, who will lead negotiations for the bloc’s next multi-annual budget.
Hawkish foreign policy
In a significant shift, several hawkish Russia critics from eastern and central Europe have received prominent roles in the EU’s next executive, reflecting the bloc’s increasing foreign policy muscle.
EU leaders already chose Estonia’s former prime minister, Kaja Kallas, in June as the bloc’s new top diplomat, who will have more powers for internal policy coordination among the bloc’s governing institutions.
Alongside her, former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius will take charge of a newly created defense commissioner role, which will oversee the bloc’s push to ramp up Europe’s defense industry.
Finland, another of Russia’s neighbors, saw candidate Henna Virkkunen awarded an overarching portfolio to manage security and tech.
The coveted enlargement role — supervising the process of future members joining the EU — went to Slovenia’s Marta Kos, a former ambassador who is yet to be confirmed as her country’s candidate due to domestic turmoil.
In addition, a newly created role to be occupied by Croatia’s Dubravka Suica will oversee the Mediterranean region and deal with migration pacts across the region.
Uncertain timeline
Brussels has been under pressure to speed up the nomination process of its new administration in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the potential return of former U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House and increasing tensions with China.
Speaking to Courthouse News, several EU diplomats said they had initially hoped the new commission team could be in place by Nov. 1, before the Nov. 6 U.S. presidential elections.
However, due to political haggling and a crowded institutional calendar, this timeline seems increasingly unlikely.
Would-be commissioners will need to win over broad political support for the European Parliament to approve them.
Over the coming weeks, they will need to face EU lawmakers in topical hearings on their respective policy portfolios, which could extend to late October or early November.
The parliament’s right to block appointees could lead EU lawmakers to reject some candidates or ask them to elaborate their visions, which could further delay the process.
According to European Parliament sources, Dec. 1 looks like a more likely deadline to confirm the new commission.