Apart from the current trouble spots in Ukraine and the Middle East, there is hardly anything but the new European Commission Brussels is talking about. As always when it comes to the establishment of a new Commission feelings are running high and political analyses about the formation of the new College of Commissioners go hand in hand with rumours about the allocation of portfolios. Until next week, the only two things being certain are that Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg) will be the Commission President and Federica Mogherini (Italy) will be the EU’s Foreign Affairs Chief and Commission Vice-President.
The appointment of Ms Mogherini respects the post-elections agreements about the distribution of top positions between the two biggest political families, the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Party of European Socialists (PES). The appointment of Donald Tusk (Poland) to replace Herman Van Rompuy as President of the European Council helps keeping the regional balance between northern, southern and eastern countries.
This week, Mr Juncker has interviewed all future Commissioners, with the exception of Marianne Thyssen (Belgium). Three key issues are at stake in shaping the new Commission: the gender balance, the weight of countries and the profile of the new Commissioners.
After it seemed at the beginning as if only six women were going to be part of the new Commission, the number of female nominees increased to nine. In order to avoid rejection of the college of Commissioners by the European Parliament, which it threatened to do if the new Commission counted less than 9 women, Juncker promised to reward female nominees with more prestigious portfolios. Consequentially, Poland and Romania withdrew their male candidates and nominated Elzbieta Bienkowska and Corina Creţu respectively. Being the last country to put forward a candidate, Belgium nominated Marianne Thyssen yesterday (Thursday).
Although Juncker has denied the truthfulness of some information that appeared in the media, it is highly probable that German and French Commissioners, Günther Oettinger and Pierre Moscovici respectively, will get the most important economic portfolios. They do not only represent two of the most powerful countries, but they also have an impressive track record. Other candidates to the economic portfolios are Margrette Vestagger (Denmark) and Jyrki Katainen (Finland).
Against one of the criticisms of the Eurosceptics regarding the quality of policy makers, one of the characteristics of the new Commission is the high-level profile of several candidates and the difficulty in allocating portfolios that meet their expectations.
It is safe to say that the allocation of portfolios may disappoint some nominees. One of them could be the Englishman Jonathan Hill. David Cameron intended the outgoing leader of the House of Lords to become the Commissioner for Internal Market and Service but it seems as if Hill has to settle with the dossier of Energy and Climate Change. The nomination of Hill came rather unexpected as he has little experience with EU politics and has never shown any intention to enter the Brussels business. Malicious tongues even claim that Cameron only nominated him as a gesture of protest towards Juncker who asked for female and high profile nominees but whom Cameron opposed as Commission President.