European Union|Von der Leyen’s new commission is politically on the right, and the most important economic portfolios were distributed to the major member states. Equality did not materialize.
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The new commission is significantly more right-wing than its predecessor.
The Commission’s financial responsibilities were mainly distributed among the large member countries.
Von der Leyen wanted an equal commission, but there are only 40% women.
The Parliament criticized the appointments of Italy’s Fitto and Hungary’s Várhely.
European chairman of the commission Ursula von der Leyen published the new commission’s portfolio allocation on Tuesday. HS summarizes the most important conclusions about the composition of the new commission.
The Commission is politically on the right
The new commission is significantly more right-wing than its predecessor. It reflects the election success of the center and far-right in the national elections, as the commissioner candidates are appointed by the government of their home country.
Of the 27 commissioners, 14 represent the center-right EPP party, including Henna Virkkunen (kok) belongs. The far-right ECR has two commissioner portfolios and the patriot group has one. Similarly, the Social Democrats, the EU’s traditional power group, have only four commissioners.
The fluctuation of political power relations is reflected in the Commission’s program. Competitiveness and security, important themes for the right, are at the top of the Commission’s priority list. Von der Leyen has also promised to deregulate and curb new legislation.
Economic portfolios for large member countries
There was fierce competition behind the scenes for the commission’s financial responsibilities. Von der Leyen said on Tuesday that at least 20 member countries wanted a strong economic portfolio.
German Von der Leyen distributed important economic portfolios mainly to large member countries.
of Spain Teresa Ribera got the important position of vice president and coordinates the EU’s clean industry program. In addition, he handles the influential position of the competition commissioner, which means he supervises state subsidies and large company mergers.
French Stéphane Séjourné is the new Internal Market Commissioner. In addition, he was given the broad task of vice-president, and his responsibility includes the formulation of the EU’s new industrial strategy.
Italian Raffaele Fitto is responsible for cohesion policy, which covers a third of the EU budget. In addition, he is responsible for the implementation of the EU’s 800 billion euro recovery package. Polish Piotr Serafin is about to receive the budget commissioner’s portfolio. The position is very influential when the commission prepares its proposal for the next multi-year budget. Currently, the size of the seven-year budget is roughly one thousand billion euros.
Equality did not materialize
Von der Leyen wanted a commission with an equal number of men and women, but this did not happen.
Of the candidates sent by the member states, there were nine women and 16 men. When you include von der Leye and the foreign policy representative of Estonia Kaja Kallaswho already received their mandate from the leaders of the EU countries, 40 percent of the commissioners are women.
Von der Leyen decided to compensate for the underrepresentation of women by making four of the six vice-presidents of the Commission women.
Italy’s portfolio raises eyebrows
The new commission still needs to get the approval of the European Parliament. The Parliament will start the hearings of the commissioner candidates in October. It is typical for the parliament to reject some of the candidates. Last time, three commissioners were replaced based on hearings.
At the moment, two candidates are sitting on the wobbly ball: Italy’s Fitto and Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi.
Parliament’s liberals, Democrats and Greens criticized Fitto’s appointment as vice-president of the Commission. In their opinion, the far-right ECR should not be given such an influential position.
Várhelyi, on the other hand, is in the firing line because he is representing Hungary Viktor Orbán government. Orbán has a lot of enemies in the European Parliament because of his corruption, the rule of law and his sympathies with Russia. In addition, Várhelyi, who served as enlargement commissioner last season, slowed down Ukraine’s membership negotiations.
As an obvious nod to Orbán, Várhelyi received a light portfolio, which includes health and animal welfare.
Stars are missing
There are no political heavyweights among the new commissioners. Most of the names are almost unknown even to the insiders of EU politics. There are several former ministers and MEPs, but only the Baltic countries sent former prime ministers to Brussels.
It remains to be seen whether there will be any new commissioners by Margrethe Vestager, by Thierry Breton or Frans Timmermans like prominent figures, or does von der Leye steal all the limelight.
Correction 17.9. at 22:04: Glenn Micallef’s name was previously incorrectly spelled as Glenn Micalleff.
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