Von der Leyen assembles new European Commission team

Strasbourg — European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday named her team, which will lead the EU’s most powerful institution for the next five years, tailoring it to focus on challenges posed by climate change, the war in Ukraine and the rise of China.

Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius will be the EU’s first defence commissioner, with the new role designed to build up European military manufacturing capacity in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, on the bloc’s eastern flank.

Spain’s energy and environment minister Teresa Ribera will be the bloc’s next antitrust commissioner, also in charge of a “clean, just and competitive transition”.

“She will guide the work to ensure that Europe stays on track for its goals set out in the European Green Deal. And that we decarbonise and industrialise our economy at the same time,” Von der Leyen told a news conference. Climate change “is the major backdrop of all what we are doing”, she said.

But, compared to her first five-year term, “the topic of security, triggered by the Russian war in Ukraine, but also the topic of competitiveness, have ... much more impact on the composition and the design” of her new team, she said.

The European Commission has the power to propose new EU laws, block mergers between companies and sign free trade deals.

Each of the bloc’s 27-member state will have one seat at the commission's table, a role comparable to a government minister, though its political weight varies depending on the portfolio.

Other names on the list of EU commissioners include French foreign minister Stephane Sejourne in charge of industrial strategy, while Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic will oversee trade policies and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas will be in charge of foreign policy. Poland’s nominee Piotr Serafin was appointed to the powerful job of overseeing the EU’s budget.

All candidates will undergo hearings with legislators in the European parliament who have to sign off on their nomination.

Ribera, Spain’s ecological transition minister, will need to fill the footsteps of Denmark’s long-serving antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who has stepped up pressure on big tech to improve competition on its platforms.

She will also oversee the EU’s stance on foreign subsidies, another hot-button issue as companies in sectors like electric vehicles and energy production are struggling to defend their business models against cheap competition from abroad, particularly from China.

All commissioners will report to German conservative Von der Leyen, who has been handed a second term as EU chief executive by member states after her political camp won the most votes in EU elections.

The next EU Commission is expected to take office by the end of the year, meaning one of its first tasks will be fielding the outcome of the US presidential election in November. A second presidency for Donald Trump could sharply alter Western unity on supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and upend EU trade relations with the world’s biggest economy.

There are 11 women in the team Von der Leyen proposed on Tuesday, well short of the gender balance she targeted. She said the imbalance was even worse before she negotiated with member states so they proposed more women for the jobs.

Each new commissioner will need to pass a hearing in the European parliament, expected in the coming weeks, in which EU legislators will attempt to extract promises from the nominees on what they will deliver if they get the job.

The EU parliament can block commission nominees, with Hungary’s Oliver Varhelyi among the candidates EU officials expect to be put under pressure during his hearing.

There was some drama on Monday on the next commission’s line-up, when France picked Sejourne as its new candidate after the incumbent, Thierry Breton, abruptly quit with tough words for Von der Leyen.

Reuters