Ursula von der Leyen presents the proposal for the new European Commission

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has presented the proposal for the new College of the European Commission in Strasbourg this morning, Tuesday 17th of September. 

“The new College si based on the political guidelines we’ve worked on – von der Leyen commented – we’ve had intensive weeks of negotiations with the member states to define our core priorities and how they will be built. The new College will be more fluent and intertwined, with more coordination among the different policies, as written in Mario Draghi’s recommendations”. 

The new Commission, as Ursula von der Leyen explained, will have to deal with sovereignty and democracy, will work to build a Europe with a circular and decarbonized economy, for a competitive Union that can ensure a fair and just ecological transition. 

Within the new college, we find 40% of women, compared with the remaining male counterpart of 60%. “When I received the nominations –  von der Leyen adds -, only the 20% were women. We have worked to get a different result, but this shows how far we still have to go”.

Coming to the composition of the new College, von der Leyen has proposed 6 new Executive Vice-presidents (4 women and 2 men), 3 of them from states that became part of the EU before the fall of the Iron Curtain and 3 others that joined later. 

The Executive Vice-presidents

The Spanish Teresa Ribera will be the Executive Vice-president responsible for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition; the Finnish Henna Virkkunen will be responsible for Tech Sovranity, Security and Democracy, while the French Stéphane Séjourné will take care of Prosperity and Industrial Strategy. 

The other three Executive Vice-president will be the Estonian Kaja Kallas (who will also have the role of High Representative) for Foreign and Security Policy; the Romenian Roxana Minzatu for People Skills and Preparedness and the Italian Raffaele Fitto for Cohesion and Reforms. 

The Commissioners

The first two Commissioners will have a double role: Maroš Šefčovič for Trade and Economic Security and Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency and Valdis Dombrovskis for Economic and Productivity and Implementation and Simplification. 

Dubravka Šuica will be the Commissioner for Mediterrenean, Olivér Várhelyi for Health and Animal Welfare, Teresa Ribera Rodríguez for Climate, Climate Justice and Ecological Transition and Wopke Hoekstra will be responsible for Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth. 

Furthermore, Arvydas Anušauskas will be the Commissioner for Defense and Space, Marta Kos for Enlargement, Jozef Šeliga for International Parternships and Costas Kadis will take care of Fisheries and Oceans.

Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union will be in the hand of Maria Luìs Albuquerque, while Hadja Lahbib will take care of Preparedness and Crisis Management and Magnus Brunner of Internal Affairs and Migration.

Jessika Roswall will be the Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and Competitive and Circular Economy; Piotr Serafin for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration; Dan Jørgensen for Energy and Housing and Ekaterina Zaharieva for Startups, Research and Innovation. 

Last but not least, Michael McGrath will be the Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law; Apostolos Tzitzikostas for Sustainable Transport and Tourism; Christophe Hansen for Agriculture and Food and Glenn Micallef for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport. 

“The new Commission will be leaner and more interconnected – von der Leyen added – we will have a courageous and ambitious industrial strategy with innovation at its core: the idea is not to preserve what is already there, but to embrace innovation. The key message is that we will all work together, being independent in thought and action: the only guiding star will be the European interests.”