The document provides an overview of the new European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker, including its priorities and the responsibilities of individual commissioners. Some key points: - Juncker has committed to clear priorities like jobs, growth, and investment and established a new structure with vice presidents overseeing these areas. - Commissioners have been appointed to focus on specific priorities like digital markets, energy, migration and foreign affairs. - Juncker aims to make the Commission more political and responsive to citizens' concerns, while maintaining cooperation across member states. - The next few months will be critical for Juncker to demonstrate progress on pressing issues like Ukraine and the economy through his new team and priorities.

1. CRITICALTHINKING AT THE CRITICALTIME™
SMOOTH OPERATOR
THE JUNCKER COMMISSION
AND ITS PRIORITIES
CRITICALTHINKING AT THE CRITICALTIME™

2. smooth operator: the juncker commission and its priorities - october 2014
The New European Commission
A period of intense speculation and Parliamentary
hearings with candidate Commissioners is
officially over. On 22 October the European
Parliament approved the Juncker Commission
with 423 votes for to 209 against and 67
abstentions. Contrary to many predictions, the
new Commission can start its work as foreseen on
1 November, pretty much with the original line up
of candidates.
The new Commission and Juncker in particular
have made an overall positive impression. The
clear set of priorities Juncker has committed to,
the new structure that supports these priorities
and some very strong Commissioners in key
positions are all encouraging. Moreover, Juncker
can count on the support of the largest political
groups in the European Parliament, who have in
the whole process asserted their level of influence,
at the expense of the smaller parties. In this sense
Juncker was probably the right choice for
Commission president – a fact he himself has not
failed to point out. This hints towards the
emergence of a cross-divide political mainstream
in the European Parliament that will support the
overall direction of the new Commission. Juncker
will have to ensure that voices outside of this
mainstream are not squeezed out by this political
consensus of the centre, and that he delivers real
impactful policies, or European voters may feel
ever more alienated.
Juncker’s success will depend on Member State
support and the individuals in charge of the
respective portfolios. His most important task will
be to adopt coherent policies in a context of
strongly diverging positions among Member
States, while maintaining overall goodwill. The
next five months will already provide plenty of
opportunity for him to demonstrate if he will be
able to tackle the most pressing issues. As he
himself has said, this will be the last chance to win
the confidence of EU citizens. The stakes could
hardly be higher.
The Juncker Commission will be much more
political than the previous Commission. They will,
according to the man at the helm, be more than
“just a bunch of technocrats”. Indeed,Juncker has
tried to ensure a team of political heavyweights
able to resist pressure from Member States. With
this move he clearly wants to address growing
scepticism and disinterest in the European Union.
Jobs and growth are the key priorities for Juncker,
and his €300bn investment package is the
cornerstone in addressing these priorities and
close to Juncker’s heart. Vice-President for
Budget & Human Resources Kristalina Georgieva
will present the investment package before
Christmas.
The digital economy, energy and capital markets
are the key sectors that are supposed to
contribute to the jobs and growth agenda.Juncker
has highlighted that he will pay special attention
to the social dimension of the aforementioned
sectors .The new Commission will have a stronger
focus on issues such as foreign policy,immigration
and the Ebola crisis. Furthermore, the Ukraine-
Russia crisis will be addressed with the utmost
urgency.
On the new structure, consisting of seven Vice-
Presidents that are each in charge of one of the
overarching priorities, Juncker clarified that the
Vice-Presidents are “no little bosses” but have to
coordinate initiatives and ideas. He described it as
obvious that you need a coordinator for large
political projects such as Jobs, Growth and
Investment that consist of many different
portfolios. In his vision the Vice-Presidents are
clearly more than just window-dressing as they
first have to agree before an initiative is tabled in
front of the College of Commissioners. In this
structure the first Vice-President Frans
Timmermans has the key role to ensure better
regulation and subsidiarity in order to hold true to
Juncker’s credo to focus on the big problems and
leave the small matters to the Member States.
RegardingtheTrans-AtlanticTradeandInvestment
Partnership (TTIP) and in particular the
controversial Investor State Dispute Settlement
(ISDS), Juncker will not accept that jurisdiction or
the access to justice in the EU is limited. The rule
of law must prevail and if Frans Timmermans does
not agree there will be no ISDS in TTIP.
Finally, addressing concerns expressed at the
hearings, Juncker made some changes to the
portfolios: under pressure from Parliament and
health NGOs he returned pharmaceutical
regulatory policy to the Health Commissioner and
away from Internal Market. On another front,
Space Policy has come under the umbrella of
Internal Market; it was originally part of the
Transport portfolio. Moreover, in response to
strong concerns expressed by the S&D Group, he
added sustainable development to the portfolio of
Vice-President Frans Timmermans. Because of
doubts regarding his human rights credentials,
Juncker removed Citizenship from the Education
and Culture portfolio of the Hungarian
Commissioner-designate, Tibor Navracsics.

3. october 2014 - smooth operator: the juncker commission and its priorities
Frans
Timmermans
First Vice-President, Better Regulation,
Interinstitutional Relations, Rule of Law and
Charter of Fundamental Rights
•• He wants to introduce a mandatory transparency register
•• Timmermans will propose an interinstitutional agreement
on better lawmaking in line with his role to ensure that EU
legislation focuses on the big problems. The proposal will
be put forward next year
•• The Commission needs to become more political and less
dry and legalistic and engage more with EU citizens
•• Timmermans will also be responsible for sustainable
development policy
Jyrki
Katainen
Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment
and Competitiveness
•• EU competitiveness and job creation will be at the heart of
his mission
•• The €300 billion investment plan put forward by Juncker
would mainly be funded by private investment with some
public participation
•• Increased lending capacity of the European Investment
Bank and other financial instruments (e.g. the European
Investment Fund) are ways to leverage the EU budget
•• The Emissions Trading Scheme reform must be one of the
main priorities in order to foster investments in climate-
friendly technologies
Valdis
Dombrovskis
Vice-President, The Euro and Social Dialogue
•• Social impact assessments will be introduced in cases of
Member States’ needing crisis assistance in the future
•• Social dialogue will be strengthened as it is essential for
reforms and completing the EMU
•• He calls for implementing structural reforms, deepening
the internal market and increasing innovation and
research
•• Fiscal adjustment is almost over and now demand side
policy will be looked at. This will be done by moving
taxation from low paid labour to other areas, such as
capital, property and environment. All reforms will include
social indicators
Maroš
Šefčovič
Vice-President for Energy Union
•• He will push for binding targets for the EU’s 2030 Climate
and Energy Framework
•• A more intelligent Eco-Design Directive will be a priority
•• Carbon capture and storage is an option to reduce our
carbon footprint
•• The European Commission should play a key role in
negotiating gas contracts. The idea of common gas
purchases is a good one
•• The EU needs to work on the southern corridor and to
develop further energy trade with Norway and Algeria
•• There will be no biofuels target after 2020
Andrus
Ansip
Vice-President for Digital Single market
•• Ansip hopes to restore Europe’s place as a global leader in
the digital economy, creating hundreds of thousands of
new jobs while giving the highest priority to data
protection
•• The Data Protection Directive needs to be rapidly adopted
•• Ansip would not rule out suspending the so-called Safe
Harbour Agreement with the United States
•• A key project is reforming the rules for a single
telecommunications market
•• Guarantees net neutrality: “All internet traffic must be
handled equally. Nobody has the right to exploit a
dominant market position.”
Kristalina
Georgieva
Budget and Human Resources
•• Her first priority is finalising the negotiations for amending
the budgets of 2014 and 2015
•• She will reorient the EU budget towards growth and
competitiveness
•• She plans to advance the establishment of a European
public prosecutor and strengthen the EU’s anti-fraud
agency OLAF to better tackle fraud
•• The Commission will start very early to review the
Multiannual Financial Framework, that lays down the
maximum annual budgets for the next five years

4. smooth operator: the juncker commission and its priorities - october 2014
Federica
Mogherini
Vice-President, High representative for foreign
affairs and security policy
•• Foreign policy issues have to be better structured within
EU institutions to enable the EU to speak with one voice
•• In the Ukraine crisis she puts her hopes on the Minsk
agreement and stressed the need to support the political
efforts that the Ukrainians are making to come to a
peaceful solution
•• The EU might have a crucial role in facilitating peace
negotiations in the Middle East
Miguel
Arias Cañete
Climate Change and Energy
•• Committed strongly to combatting climate change
•• He strongly supports renewables, energy efficiency, and
interconnections (particularly in the Baltics and the
Iberian Peninsula)
•• He will work on a shale gas legislative proposal to ensure
compliance with strictest environmental standards
•• There needs to be better coordination of national energy
policies in order to ensure that the EU speaks with one
voice
Věra
Jourová
Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality
•• Four key files of her mandate will be women on boards,
data protection, the EU Public Prosecutor and the
consumer safety package
•• She wants sustainable, responsible behaviour in all
sectors, including the financial sector (she will have
oversight of application of rules on bankers’ bonuses)
•• She will not compromise EU citizens’ rights in international
negotiations on data protection
•• Jourova is committed to equality and upholding women’s
rights and principles of EU justice
Günther
Oettinger
Digital Economy and Society
•• He stressed the importance of infrastructure for a
successful digital economy and more resources must be
devoted to the Connecting Europe Facility
•• One of his key priorities will be copyright reform. It will be
tough to manage the balance between defending the
interests of copyright-holders while at the same time
undergoing a revision of digital rules
•• The EU needs a firm line on data protection and data
storage if it wants to negotiate these issues with the US
Dimitris
Avramopoulos
Migration, Home Affairs & Citizenship
•• Setting up a regular immigration framework is the best
way to fight illegal immigration, not building a fortress
•• The Dublin II Regulation will not be reviewed, however he
plans to carry out studies to find better ways of burden
sharing
•• He will seek to expand the responsibilities of the European
border agency Frontex and wants to work towards a real
European border system
Elżbieta
Bieńkowska
Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
•• Reindustrialising Europe by 2020 in a sustainable and
innovation-driven manner across all sectors is her
overarching priority
•• She wants to facilitate the access of SMEs to finance
through alternative, more efficient and reciprocal
instruments at EU and national level
•• She also wants to deepen the external dimension of the
internal market and access to non-EU markets
•• She aims to cut down administrative burdens and
dismantle rules that are unhelpful to SMEs

5. october 2014 - smooth operator: the juncker commission and its priorities
Vytenis
Andriukaitis
Health and Food Safety
•• His focus will be on preventive healthcare (prevention,
promotion and protection) and improving healthcare
systems through e-Health solutions
•• The EU needs a very solid anti-corruption package for
healthcare systems
•• Andriukaitis wants to follow up on the implementation of
the Cross-Border Health Directive
•• He will review the decision-making process for GMOs
within 6 months of his mandate, in line with Juncker’s
political guidelines
Cecilia
Malmström
Trade
•• Both the EU and the US want an “ambitious”TTIP, including
lower tariffs, regulatory harmonisation, services, procurement,
and energy
•• The Investor State Dispute Settlement agreement (ISDS)
could be taken out of TTIP but this needs thorough discussion
and assessment of the public consultation. On the other hand
in the EU-Canada agreement (CETA) ISDS will not be
renegotiated
•• Malmström will start discussions on access to documents on
trade negotiations
•• Other priorities include finalising the Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPA) with the African, Carribean and Pacific
countries and upgrading the trade agreement with Mexico
Johannes
Hahn
European Neighbourhood Policy and
Enlargement Negotiations
•• It is unlikely that any candidate country for EU membership
will achieve the accession criteria during the next five years
•• The rule of law and fundamental rights, the economy, and
democracy are the most important criteria for accession
•• Hahn wants to use the neighbourhood policy to invest in
infrastructure that will visibly improve the economy and
quality of life in the western Balkans like roads, railway, and
energy grids
•• Libya is one of the most pressing countries in the EU’s
neighbourhood and urgent action is needed to improve
security and get the basics working
Jonathan
Hill
Financial Stability, Financial Services and
Capital Markets Union
•• His first priority is the implementation of around 400
measures that were brought in under outgoing Internal Market
Commissioner Barnier
•• Further priorities include benchmarks, structural issues
around banks and legislation for the Capital Markets Union
•• European Long-term Investment Funds (ELTIFs) will form part
of the Capital Markets Union and will be an urgent priority
•• Shadow banking can provide important sources of investment.
It is thus essential to strike the right balance between effective
regulation and not strangling the funding of the real economy
Phil
Hogan
Agriculture and Rural Development
•• Hogan plans to simplify the administration around the
CAP for farmers, and in particular the system of direct
farm payments. He will develop early in his mandate ideas
for a simplification of the CAP in accordance with general
regulatory fitness principles (REFIT)
•• The Commission will focus on sufficient funding for
investments, business start-ups and local development in
rural areas
•• The environment and sustainability will remain at the
center of the EU’s agricultural policy
Neven
Mimica
International cooperation and development
•• The number of development priorities has to be reduced.
This exercise will be finalised by the end of the year
•• The Post-Cotonou agreement with the African, Carribean
and Pacific countries is a real priority and a group of those
countries is already reflecting on the issue
•• As regards tax evasion, Mimica favours developing
countries being part of the negotiations on how to build
global common tax evasion mechanisms

6. smooth operator: the juncker commission and its priorities - october 2014
Carlos
Moedas
Research, Science and Innovation
•• Focus will be on clean energies,“green growth” and jobs
– a third of Horizon 2020 funding will be directed to
renewables
•• There is a need to maximise synergies of public funding
and improve monitoring and coordination of initiatives at
Member State level to boost private investment in times of
budgetary constraints
•• At the international level the EU will step up its efforts in
science diplomacy
Marianne
Thyssen
Employment, social affairs, skills and labour
mobility
•• Job creation is going to be the clear priority. Investing in
research, cutting red tape, making it easier to start a business
and develop a capital market to make companies less
dependent on banks for their investments are possible
measures to create jobs
•• Thyssen committed to adding more social parameters to the
evaluation of EU Member States in the European Semester
•• The Directive on Maternity Leave will be re-opened under the
new legislature after the European Parliament could not reach
an agreement with the Council on the duration of maternity
leave
Margarethe
Vestager
Competition
•• Her overarching goal is to tackle key obstacles to job
creation
•• Vestager will fight tax evasion: in particular arrangements
such as the “Double Irish” that allow companies to shift
income to lower-tax countries are very unfortunate and
Vestager will continue to bring such activities to the fore as
Almunia did
•• The EU needs to make sure that it has the right tools to
keep up with the rapidly evolving digital sector
•• She opposes ideas to relax state aid rules to support the
creation of national champions
Violeta
Bulc
Transport
•• The future of transport is to be connected at every level.
One of the ways to achieve this is to promote integrated
carbon measurements
•• The share of renewables and alternative fuels should be
strengthened in transport to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions
•• The Roadmap for a Single European Transport Area (2011)
will be re-assessed and possibly revised
•• She called for awareness of social issues in transport and
their impact on labour force, workers’ health and
employment
Karmenu
Vella
Environment, Maritime Affairs & Fisheries
•• The 7th Environmental Action Plan will be Vella’s most
important policy guideline with particular emphasis on the
circular economy (i.e. optimising recycling)
•• The Birds Directive has not been reviewed for 35 years, it
is time to take new science into account
•• He highlighted that the Commission services have made
suggestions to promote the mixing of crops to address the
potential extinction of bees
•• Eliminating dangerous chemical substances is a priority
Tibor
Navracsics
Education, Culture, Youth & Sports
•• Education is at the heart of the jobs & growth agenda, with
a review to be produced within three months. Investment
in education must be protected from cuts
•• Europe’s universities should become the best in the world
in view of their key role in innovation
•• He supports the European Institute of Innovation &
Technology (EIT) and wants to spread its work across
Europe
•• Segregation is one of the issues that should be tackled at
EU level, for example the Roma population in Hungary

7. CRITICALTHINKING
AT THE CRITICALTIME
™
Arne Koeppel
Head of Research
+32 2 289 09 39
Arne.Koeppel@fticonsulting.com
FTI Consulting Brussels
+32 2 289 09 30
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Christos
Stylianides
Humanitarian Aid & Crisis Management
•• The focus will be on investing in crisis resilience
•• The Ebola crisis will be one of the first issues he will
address
•• He is ready “to negotiate with the devil” to get
humanitarian assistance to those in need in remote,
forgotten areas
•• The World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in 2016 will be
an important event in view of the refugee crisis in Syria
Corina
Creţu
Regional Policy
•• Unpaid invoices in cohesion policy amounting to €23
billion by the end of last year are a key issue
•• Among her priorities are less bureaucracy for beneficiaries
and a proper management of funds
•• The focus must lie on the administrative capacity of
Member States, in order to reduce errors; this includes
specialists (economists) to be sent by the Commission to
help Member States
•• She wants high quality operational programmes for the
next seven years to be adopted as soon as possible
Pierre
Moscovici
Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and
Customs
•• Moscovici is serious about Member States’ compliance
with the Stability and Growth Pact (i.e. setting limits for
national budget). He will not defend any exemptions and
derogations
•• Moscovici is committed to fighting tax base erosion and
wants to support the automatic exchange of information.
The Commission should make proposals to invite national
governments to improve information exchange in tax
matters
•• He supports the Financial Transaction Tax