On Tuesday 17 September 2024, Ursula von Der Leyen unveiled her proposal for the new college of Commissioners for the European Commission. After intense debate and last-minute changes, the proposed College has been unveiled together with the mission letters that go with each Commissioner portfolios.
The Commissioner-candidates will now have to be vetted by the European Parliament before they can start working. Hearings in front of the various Committees of the European Parliament are forecast to happen early November, presumably between November 4th and November 8. Once vetted by the European Parliament Committees, the College of Commissioners will have to be formally endorsed by a plenary vote in the European Parliament which could take place during the third week of November or early December.
The new European Commission would be composed as follows (each Commissioner candidate representing an EU Member State):
- 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
Each Commissioner will work hand in hand with some Executive Vice-Presidents and the President of the European Commission as outlined in the infographic below.
Letters of mission have also been published that go along with each portfolio and Commissioner proposed. Further below is a downloadable file recapping the mission's letters, flagging out the ones which are important for our sector.
For example, Commissioner-designated Maria Albuquerque will have the crucial role of looking at Financial Services, which includes scaling up sustainable finance, working on improving digital finance and payments and on assessing artificial intelligence deployment in the financial sector. She will also be responsible for the implementation and enforcement of the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism package and of the launch of the AMLA.
Executive Vice President-designated Henna Virkkunen will oversee Tech, Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, which entails the whole boosting of AI innovation and setting up the EU AI Research Council, but also work on an EU Cloud and AI Development Act and a single EU-wide Cloud policy. She will also work to improve secure and fast connectivity with a Digital Networks Act, strengthening cybersecurity and boost the EU Digital Rulebook. Interestingly in her remit also falls the implementation of the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act and the call to present a European Union Data Strategy drawing on existing data rules to ensure a simplified, clear and coherent legal framework for businesses and administrations to share data seamlessly and at scale, while respecting high privacy and security standards.
On the Industrial Strategy, Executive Vice-President designated Stéphane Séjourné will oversee the horizontal Single Market Strategy and explore the feasibility of a dedicated SME Passport to focus on improving access to finance, simplifying the regulatory environment and promoting innovation for SMEs. He will also lead the work to introduce a new category of small midcaps and assess where existing regulation unjustifiably hinders their development.
Commissioner-designated ValdisDombovskis will oversee economy and productivity, implementation, and simplification. For the latter, he will report directly to Mrs Von Der Leyen and work to develop a new Competitiveness Coordination Tool, lead the work on stress-test the EU acquis to eliminate overlaps and contradictions. He will also coordinate the work to make proposals to simplify, consolidate and codify legislation and to reduce administrative and reporting burden. His task also includes implementing the SME and competitiveness check and revising the Commission’s system of expert groups to make them more efficient.
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