Factbox-Who’s who in top picks for European Commission
2024.09.17 08:04
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday nominated her candidates for posts in the EU executive.
Each of the EU’s 27 member states gets a seat at the Commission table. Here are some of the key posts and nominees:
BUDGET
Piotr Serafin (Poland)
Poland’s ambassador to the European Union was head of cabinet of current Prime Minister Donald Tusk when Tusk was president of the European Council in 2014-2019, during which the bloc was shaken by Britain’s vote to leave the EU.
He also served as a secretary of state from 2008 to 2014 during Tusk’s first term as Polish prime minister.
His main job will be to draw up the EU’s next seven-year budget – a highly complex and politically sensitive task.
Serafin will expect to draw from his experience as deputy head of cabinet to EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski, when he worked on the EU’s multi-annual 2014-2020 budget.
COHESION POLICY
Raffaele Fitto (Italy)
The European affairs minister is one of the more moderate members of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right Brothers of Italy party but his appointment to a senior post has raised questions among EU lawmakers, who could block it.
Fitto has been in charge of Italy’s sluggish efforts to spend EU COVID-19 bailout funds and meet the reform targets tied to the money.
The 55-year-old has experience as a former EU lawmaker and comes from a family of politicians. Both he and his father were presidents of their native southern Puglia region.
Italy had hoped for a heavyweight position despite Meloni’s party voting against von der Leyen when the EU parliament approved her second term as Commission president in July.
CLIMATE
Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands)
Hoekstra has been serving as the EU’s Climate Commissioner since October 2023 and will stay on in that role, with the addition of “clean growth” in his title an indication of the EU’s push to produce its own green products, rather than relying on imports, notably from China.
At 48, the father of four brings a varied background, having worked at oil firm Shell (LON:) and consulting firm McKinsey, along with serving as finance and foreign minister in his home country.
European lawmakers put Hoekstra through a tough approval process when he was appointed as the EU’s climate chief because of his stint at Shell and as he hails from the centre-right European People’s Party political group, which had opposed some EU environment laws.
COMPETITION
Teresa Ribera (Spain)
A long-time advocate for ambitious climate action, Teresa Ribera has been Spain’s minister for the ecological transition since 2018 and has sped up the country’s shift to clean energy.
Ribera – who has clashed with Spanish companies over her energy policies – will be tasked with ensuring a level economic playing field in Europe’s single market. Like incumbent antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, part of her task is likely to include reining in Big Tech.
Ribera, 55 and with two daughters, is set to be one of the most powerful women in a male-majority Commission, after most governments ignored von der Leyen’s request to nominate both male and female candidates.
DEFENCE
Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania)
Kubilius, 67, has twice served as prime minister of Lithuania, from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012. Both times, he pushed through painful reforms – including spending cuts and tax hikes – to deal with economic crises. He lost the subsequent elections.
He reduced retirement pensions twice in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which saw Lithuania’s economy shrink by 15%. His domestic ratings tanked and did not recover and he lost the leadership of his party in 2015.
He is currently a member of the European Parliament. In the defence post, his task will be to get European governments and arms firms to cooperate to reduce fragmentation in the sector and increase defence production capacity.
ECONOMY
Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia)
The former Latvian prime minister and finance minister will be serving a third term as commissioner, to date focused on financial services and the EU economy.
He also took on the trade file, seeking to ease transatlantic trade tensions after the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump.
Dombrovskis will retain the economy file and will be in charge of trying to reduce or simplify the EU’s myriad regulations and directives.
ENERGY
Dan Jorgensen (Denmark)
Denmark aimed to install a strong advocate for climate action in the new Commission in the form of its minister for development and global climate policy.
Jorgensen, 49 and a socialist, was behind laws that committed Denmark to reduce emissions by 70% from 1990 levels within 10 years and to phase out North Sea oil and gas extraction by 2050. Denmark has traditionally opposed nuclear power.
Jorgensen has been active in global climate talks and is no stranger to the EU, having served as a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2013.
FOREIGN POLICY
Kaja Kallas (Estonia)
Kallas, 47, used her position as Estonia’s prime minister to become one of the most vocal critics of neighbouring Russia among European leaders – and one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine’s bids to join the European Union and NATO.
Under her premiership, from 2021 to 2024, the country of 1.4 million people became one of the highest per-capita military donors to Ukraine.
In February this year, Russian police placed her on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments in Estonia. Kallas vowed the move would not stop her supporting Ukraine.
However, her popularity at home suffered when Estonian media revealed last year that her husband was involved in a business which continued operations in Russia, even as Kallas publicly criticised all who did so.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS/MIGRATION
Magnus Brunner (Austria)
As Austria’s finance minister, Brunner’s flagship achievement has been a law to counteract the so-called “cold progression” whereby taxpayers slide into higher income-tax brackets through inflation.
The 52-year-old from the mountainous province of Vorarlberg that borders Switzerland has implemented classic conservative policies though political opponents have accused him of spending too loosely and failing to do enough to counter inflation.
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY
Stéphane Séjourné (France)
France’s foreign minister was a late addition to the line-up after Thierry Breton abruptly quit on Monday.
Sejourne, 39, is a loyalist of President Emmanuel Macron, their ties dating back to his spell as adviser when Macron was French economy minister from 2014 to 2016. Sejourne chairs Macron’s party Renaissance and also served as a member of the European Parliament, leading the centrist Renew Europe group.
He has only led France’s foreign ministry since January, again loyally sticking to Macron’s policies.
TRADE
Maros Sefcovic (Slovakia)
A former diplomat who was Slovakia’s ambassador to Israel and to the EU, the 58-year-old has been a commissioner since 2009, most recently in charge of relations with other EU institutions.
Sefcovic took on the EU-U.K. file, helping improve EU ties with former EU member Britain and to seal the Windsor Framework agreement that eases post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.
The Slovak commissioner has also taken charge of EU relations with Switzerland, trying to encourage the Alpine nation to accept a broader agreement governing its economic ties with the European Union.
Sefcovic will be commissioner for trade and economic security, a nod to the EU executive’s policy to have stronger controls on the export of technologies that could be put to military use by rivals such as China.
