Brussels has been buzzing all week with the expected news of the Commissioners designate and their portfolios. Despite earlier ‘leaks’ the eventual official announcement by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker brought some surprises.
Plum role for UK
UK Commissioner designate, Jonathan Hill, got the new plum financial services portfolio, which includes financial stability and capital markets. If the move was intended to draw in an increasing critical UK, initially at least it seems to have achieved its goal. Commenting on the assignment, British PM David Cameron said: “I think that is a great piece of news because 40% of European’s financial services industry is in the United Kingdom”.
Important portfolios were also given to other larger Member States, including economic affairs to France’s Pierre Moscovici, digital economy to Germany under Günther Oettinger, and energy to Spain under Miguel Cañete. Most of the prestigious Vice President positions, however, have been given to smaller countries.
Vice Presidents as ‘project leaders’
A major innovation of the new line up is the presence of seven Vice Presidents, three of them women, with broader portfolios reflecting the key areas set out in Juncker’s Political Guidelines on the basis of which he was elected by the European Parliament, including energy union, jobs and growth and digital single market.
The job of the VPs will be to lead ‘project teams’ to steer and coordinate the work of the Commissioners responsible for related portfolios. The VPs will also act as a filter between Juncker and the other Commissioners with the intention of creating a less centralised structure. Juncker has fallen shy of creating a two-tier Commission composed of clusters, emphasising that “there are no first or second class Commissioners”. It remains to be seen how the work of the VPs and the other Commissioners will align and interact and whether the new structure will indeed achieve the objective of breaking down silos between separate but related portfolios.
Juncker’s right hand man
Another novelty is the creation of a new Commission ‘First Vice President’, given to Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans. Explaining the new post, Juncker said: “Timmermans will be my right hand man […] he will be my deputy if I’m unable to be physically or mentally present”. Timmermans will head up a brand new portfolio – better regulation – reflecting calls for EU policy that is actually needed and that cannot be better achieved by Member States.
There has been a reshaping and strengthening of portfolios. This includes new portfolios on Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and on Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. Consumer is given a prominent place in a portfolio that includes also Justice and Gender Equality and there is a new portfolio on Migration, together with Home Affairs. Added to this is the realignment of existing portfolios such as Environment with Maritime and Fisheries, and Climate Action and Energy Policy. Questions about the rationale of combining environment with maritime and climate with energy are already being asked.
All of the changes at the top will necessitate a restructuring of the services, details of which were set out in an annex to the Commission’s official press release.
EP challenge
Juncker faced the unenviable task of putting together a Commission that will satisfy the varying and disparate demands of 27 Member States (excluding Juncker who has been elected by the European Parliament) and a bullish European Parliament that has the power to reject the entire proposed Commission. He has worked hard to try to achieve a balance of politics, gender and power, responding to the current climate of financial uncertainty and euroscepticism.
Has he succeeded? Already, rumours abound concerning the suitability of certain candidates to their portfolios, for example, Spain’s Cañete as climate and energy Commissioner, given his connections to the oil industry. All will soon be revealed when the 27 Commissioners designate face a drilling by MEPs in individual hearings due to start later this month.