EU Commission's sho’who. President, Vicepresidents, Commissioners Identikit

1. The new European
Commission 2014-2019;
bureaucrats or shamans
November 2014

2. The European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the
European Union, in other words it drives the political agenda
of the EU. There are 28 Commissioners, one from each
EU Member State; they serve a 5 year term and are each
responsible for a specific area. A new Commission is appointed
after the elections of the European Parliament.
The main role of the European Commission is to:
set the objectives and priorities of the EU;
propose legislation to the European Parliament and Council;
manage and implement EU policies;
manage the EU budget;
enforce European law.

3. The Juncker Commission: 2014-2019
The new European Commission officially started its term of office
on 1 November 2014; its President is Jean-Claude Juncker,
indicated by the European People’s Party (EPP). The President is
the head of the Commission. In fact:
he allocates portfolios to other members of the Commission;
sets the policy agenda and work of the whole Commission;
chairs all its meetings.
Juncker was elected by the EU Parliament on July 15; he is
the first President of the European Commission to have
been chosen by the parliamentary groups: in fact, during
the EU Parliament election campaign parties had indicated their
respective candidate for President.
Up until the previous Barroso Commission, the candidate was
essentially proposed by the Council of the European Union
and the EP could only approve or reject the nomination.

4. The Juncker Commission: challenges and objectives
In his investiture speech before the European Parliament,
President Juncker outlined the main objectives he intends to
pursue during his mandate:
boost jobs, growth and investment;
create a connected digital single market;
a resilient energy union;
a forward-looking climate change policy.
According to the French daily “Le Monde”, Juncker’s task is
“enormous, given the weakness of the institution after
President Barroso’s ten-year tenure”. Like most of the foreign
press, the newspaper indicated three main challenges for
2014-2019:
consolidation of the Euro;
keeping the United Kingdom in the European Union;
creation of a common immigration policy.

5. The President: Jean-Claude Juncker
Very few politicians in Europe have the experience and sway
of the Luxembourgian Jean-Claude Juncker, aged 60, a real
“heavyweight” in the continent’s political arena.
Although chosen by the EPP, the party of which Angela Merkel
is also a member, he is independent enough to have been able to
choose a French socialist as the Commissioner for Economic
and Monetary Affairs.

6. In short, Jean-Claude Juncker
Prime Minister of Luxembourg, continuously from 1995
to 2013.
In 2013, after seven years, he resigned as the President of
the Eurogroup because he was “tired” of Franco-German
interference in managing the economic crisis.
The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrandt defined the way Juncker
chose the Commissioners as “revolutionary”. According to
the Spanish El Pais, Juncker showed he wanted “to command”
and that “he refuses to be controlled by Germany”.
In 2007 he was awarded the Gran Croce dell’Ordine al
Merito of the Italian Republic, the highest national order
of knighthoods in Italy.
Only four days after taking up his new post, he had already
slapped Matteo Renzi on the wrist: “I am not the president
of a band of bureaucrats. I am the President of the European
Commission, an institution that deserves respect”. Unlike
Renzi, given the way he became Prime Minister?

7. The Vice-Presidents : Frans Timmermans
Juncker nominated 7 Vice-Presidents from amongst the 28
Commissioners.
Frans Timmermans is the First Vice-President, i.e.,
the President’s closest direct collaborator. Dutch, 53, he is
Commissioner for Better Regulation, Interinstitutional
Relations, the Rule of Law and the Charter of Fundamental
Rights.

8. In short, Frans Timmermans
Although he comes from a party aligned with the European
Socialist Party (ESP), Timmermans has very moderate
positions in line with Juncker’s.
From 2012 to 2014 he was the Dutch Foreign Minister.
Europe is his destiny: the son of a diplomat, he was born
in Maastricht.
He speaks English, German, French, Russian and Italian
fluently, as well as Dutch, his mother tongue.
He is a great supporter of AS Roma: he says he is “Roman
and Romanista”.
His address to the UN after the death of roughly 200 Dutch
citizens in the catastrophic crash of flight MH17 (Malaysia
Airlines) was seen over 1,000,000 times on Youtube.

9. The Vice-Presidents : Federica Mogherini
The Italian Federica Mogherini, 41, former Minister of Foreign
Affairs in the Renzi Government, was assigned the prestigious
position as High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy: after the British Catherine Ashton,
another Lady FASP!

10. In short, Federica Mogherini
She was the youngest Minister of Foreign Affairs in
the history of the Italian Republic.
Until 2013 she was not exactly a Renzi supporter. She
once wrote the following tweet: “Renzi needs to study
foreign affairs. He doesn’t even make the grade”. Who
knows if he chose her after doing a little swatting!
The Financial Times, the Economist and Le Monde criticised
her nomination; they judged her to be incompetent
because she had very little experience in the international
arena: are 20 years in the field not enough?
She says that the song Bella Ciao is “the best lullaby in
the world”.

11. The Vice-Presidents: Kristalina Georgieva
Kristalina Georgieva, 61, Bulgarian, was nominated
Commissioner for the Budget and Human Resources.

12. In short, Kristalina Georgieva
Former Commissioner for International Cooperation,
Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response during the second
Barroso Commission (2010-2014), the Bulgarian
Government again proposed her as their Commission
candidate.
She has never held institutional or government
positions in Bulgaria.
In 2010 she was elected Commissioner of the Year by
the weekly European Voice for her work coordinating the
European response to the humanitarian crisis after the
earthquake in Haiti.
She was indicated by the Bulgarian government as a
candidate for the position of Lady FASP: it appears that
European foreign affairs are a task only for women!

13. The Vice-Presidents : Valdis Dombrovskis
Valdis Dombrovskis, 43, Latvian, conservative, is
Commissioner for the Euro and Social Dialogue.

14. In short, Valdis Dombrovskis
He was elected for the first time to the European
Parliament in 2004.
From 2009 to 2013 he was Prime Minister of Latvia.
He resigned after an tragedy in Riga in which 54 people
died when the roof of a supermarket collapsed.
He has a degree in Physics.
His responsibilities include making decisions about support
for struggling Eurozone Countries, reviewing the fiscal
and macroeconomic surveillance legislation: six pack and
two-pack, for example. Well, good luck!

15. The The Vice-Presidents : Andrus Ansip
Andrus Ansip, 58, Estonian, President of the Reformierakond
party aligned with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for
Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament, is Commissioner
for the Single Digital Market.

16. In short, Andrus Ansip
He was Prime Minister of Estonia, continuously, from
2005 to 2014.
At the Parliamentary Elections in 2007 he was the most
voted candidate in the history of an independent Estonia.
He worked in the financial world and has been CEO of 3
different Estonian investment funds.
During his political career he has been a member of 8
centre-right parties.

17. The Vice-Presidents : Jyrki Katainen
Jyrki Katainen, 43, Finnish, conservative, registered
with the EPP, was chosen by Jean-Claude Juncker as the
new Commissioner for Jobs, Investments, Growth and
Competitiveness.

18. In short, Jyrky Katainen
He was the Commissioner of Economic and Monetary
Affairs during the second Barroso Commission.
In 2008 the Financial Times elected him the best European
Minister of Finance.
He was Prime Minister of Finland from 2011 to 2014.
In 2007 and 2009 he took part in the annual conference of
the Bilderberg Group.
He is a marathon runner.
As soon as he took up his post, he expressed his own
ideas about the Budget Law presented by the Italian
Government, stigmatising a “significant departure from
the objectives” of the balanced budget rule. In short, Italy
flunked the test: well begun is half done…

19. The Vice-Presidents : Maroš Šefčovič
Maroš Šefčovič, 48, Slovak, is Commissioner for the
Energy Union. Here is some data about a key-player in the
next European government.

20. In short, Maroš Šefčovič
He was Commissioner for Inter-institutional relations
and Administration in the second Barroso Commission
from 2010 to 2014.
He was the Ambassador of Slovakia to Israel.
For many years there has been talk of the “completion
of the internal Energy market” in Europe, but so far
the results have not really been encouraging. Will the new
Commissioner prove the sceptics wrong?

21. The other Commissioners
Pierre Moscovici
57, French, socialist is Com-missioner
for Economic and
Financial Affairs, Taxation
and Customs.
Despite the fact Katainen, the
austerity champion, will “keep
a close eye” on him, his nomi-nation
as head of a key-Com-mission
received a cold wel-come
by Angela Merkel. So,
was it a good choice?
Günther Oettinger
61, German, people’s party, is
Commissioner for the Digi-tal
Economy and Society.
Former Commissioner for En-ergy
under Barroso, in 2011
he made the brilliant pro-posal
to fly the flags of the EU
countries with a budget deficit
at half mast. However he later
apologised.

22. The other Commissioners
Cecilia Malmström
46, Swedish, liberal, is Com-missioner
for Trade.
A convinced pro-Europe sup-porter,
she believes that Swe-den
should adopt the Euro.
However, in her own Country,
not everyone would be so en-thusiastic.
Jonathan Hill
54, British, conservative, is
Commissioner for Financial
Stability, Financial Services
and Capital markets Union.
Regulation of financial services
and capital markets are likely
the main cause of London’s
euroscepticism. Who knows
whether making them respon-sible
for managing these af-fairs
might make them more
pro-EU!

23. The other Commissioners
Marianne Thyssen
58, Belgian, people’s party, is
Commissioner for Employ-ment,
Social Affairs, Skills
and Labour Mobility.
She was an MEP for 23 con-secutive
years, from 1991 to
2014. In short, a homage to
labour mobility!
Miguel Arias Cañete
64, Spanish, people’s party, is
Commissioner for Climate
Action and Energy.
His nomination caused con-cern
due to his possible con-flict
of interest: Cañete and
some of his family members
were shareholders in two oil
companies. The Commission-er
says he has sold his shares,
but his brother has not.

24. The other Commissioners
Violeta Bulc
50, Slovenian, is Commission-er
for Transport.
Slovenian had initially indicat-ed
the former Prime Minister
Alenka Bratusek, but the Eu-ropean
Parliament rejected
the nomination believing her
to be “incompetent”.
Telecommunications entre-preneur,
she has a black belt in
taekwondo, goes to lessons
held by a shaman and has
learnt how to walk on fire!
Tibor Navracsics
48, Hungarian, is Commis-sioner
for Education, Cul-ture,
Youth and Sport.
He was nominated even
thought the EU Parliament
rejected him: as a member
of the Hungarian government
headed by Orbàn, in 2011 Nav-racsics
implemented a reform
which severely curtailed the
freedom of the press in
Hungary. Long live culture!

25. The other Commissioners
Philip Hogan
54, Irish, people’s party, is
Commissioner for Agriculture
and Rural Development.
As Minister of the Environment
in Ireland he severely criti-cised
the “Nitrates Directive”
which limits stock farming and
liquid manure discharging. He
succeeded in obtaining a der-ogation
for Irish breeders for
whom the limits have been
raised by almost 50% com-pared
to other EU Countries.
Johannes Hahn
57, Austrian, people’s party, is
Commissioner for European
Neighbourhood Policy & En-largement
Negotiations.
When he was Commissioner for
Regional Policy he examined the
exaggerated demands for eco-nomic
aid presented by several
Italian regions after the freak
snowstorms in 2012 and stated:
“I can’t say anything about the
outcome of our work, because it
is still ongoing. But in any case,
snow normally melts…”.

26. The other Commissioners
Neven Mimica
61, Croatian, social democrat,
is Commissioner for Inter-national
Cooperation and
Development.
He was the first European
Commissioner in the his-tory
of Croatia.
His audition at the EU Parlia-ment
took place immediately
after Oettinger. The MEPs
commented as follows on his
excellent performance: “A re-lief,
after that piece of ice!”
Dimitris
Avramopoulos
61, Greek, is Commissioner
for Migration, Home Affairs
and Citizenship.
His was one of the most con-troversial
and criticised nomi-nations:
as the Greek Minister
of Defence, in 2012 he built a
barbed wire fence 12.5 km
long between Greece and Tur-key
to stop migrants and fu-gitives
from entering. What a
nice business card for a Com-missioner
for Migration: will it
still be Fortress Europe?

27. The other Commissioners
Christos Stylianidis
54, Cypriot, people’s party, is
Commissioner for Humani-tarian
Aid and Crisis Man-agement.
On 24 October 2014 the Euro-pean
Council nominated Styl-ianidis
EU Coordinator for the
Ebola crisis in West Africa.
Margrethe Vestager
46, Danish, liberal, is Commis-sioner
for Competition.
During meetings she often
knits, she adores knitting!

28. The other Commissioners
Vytenis Andriukaitis
63, Lithuanian, socialist, is
Commissioner for Health
and Food Safety.
In 1941 the Soviet regime de-ported
his family to Siberia.
In 1990 he was a co-signato-ry
of the Act of the Re-Es-tablishment
of the State of
Lithuania.
Karmenu Vella
64, Maltese, is Commissioner
for the Environment, Mari-time
Affairs and Fisheries.
The EU Parliament did not ob-ject
to his nomination, but said
it was dissatisfied with his
audition.

29. The other Commissioners
Elżbieta Bieńkowska
50, Polish, is Commissioner
for the Internal Market, In-dustry,
Entrepreneurship
and SMEs.
Together with Donald Tusk, the
newly-elected President of the
European Council, she is part of
the “golden couple” of Polish
politics.
Carlos Moedas
44, Portuguese, is Commis-sioner
for Research, Sci-ence
and Innovation.
During his audition in front of
the EU Parliament he said: “I
better at doing things rather
than speaking.

30. The other Commissioners
Věra Jourová
50, Czech, she is Commis-sioner
for Justice, Consum-ers
and Gender Equality.
In 2006 she spent one month
under house arrest accused of
corruption, but was later ac-quitted
Corina Creţu
47, Romanian, liberal, she is
Commissioner for Regional
Affairs.
During her audition in front of
the EU Parliament she said:
“we certainly need wellness
centre for people and ani-mals,
but there are more im-portant
things in which to in-vest
our resources”.