Ursula von der Leyen announces her new team of European Commissioners

Ursula von der Leyen has unveiled her nominated team of European Commissioners and the policy areas she will ask them to steer over the five-year mandate.

Martha Kos will be in charge of EU enlargement and support for Ukraine, while Kaja Kallas will be the High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission.

Speaking to reporters in Strasbourg, the European Commission chief described her newly proposed team of commissioners as having a “leaner” and more “interactive and interlinked structure,” centered on the core principles of “prosperity, security, and democracy.”

Teresa Ribera, from Spain, was appointed executive vice president for a clean, just, and competitive transition. Henna Virkkunen from Finland will focus on tech sovereignty, security, and democracy as the executive vice president, while Stéphane Séjourné from France will take on the role of executive vice president for prosperity and industrial strategy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s ally Raffaele Fitto, the executive vice president for cohesion and reforms, is among the other figures named to senior roles. Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu was proposed to be executive vice president for people, skills, and preparedness.

Ursula von der Leyen said that each commissioner will be equally responsible for implementing the EC’s priorities. Each executive vice president will have his or her own list of tasks to work on together with other commissioners. That is why this time there will be no additional level of vice presidents in the European Commission. 

Proposed team of European Commissioners

• Austria – Magnus Brunner – Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration
• Belgium – Hadja Lahbib – Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management
• Bulgaria – Ekaterina Zaharieva – Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation
• Croatia – Dubravka Šuica – Commissioner for the Mediterranean
• Cyprus – Costas Kadis – Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans
• Czech Republic – Jozef Sikela – Commissioner for the International Partnerships
• Denmark – Dan Jørgensen – Commissioner for Energy and Housing
• Estonia – Kaja Kallas – Executive Vice-President for Foreign and Security Policy and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Defence Policy
• Finland – Henna Virkkunen – Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Commissioner for Digital and Frontier Technologies
• France – Stéphane Séjourné – Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Commissioner for Industry, SMEs and the Single Market
• Germany – Ursula von der Leyen – European Commission President
• Greece – Apostolos Tzitzikostas – Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism
• Hungary – Olivér Várhelyi – Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare
• Ireland – Michael McGrath- Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law
• Italy – Raffaele Fitto – Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms, Commissioner for Cohesion Policy, Regional Development and Cities
• Latvia – Valdis Dombrovskis – Commissioner for Economy and Productivity; Implementation and Simplification
• Lithuania – Andrius Kubilius – Commissioner for Defence and Space
• Luxembourg – Christophe Hansen – Commissioner for Agriculture and Food
• Malta – Glenn Micallef – Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Culture, Youth and Sport.
• Netherlands – Wopke Hoekstra – Commissioner for Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth, also responsible for taxation
• Poland – Piotr Serafin – Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration
• Portugal – Maria Luis Alburquerque – Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union
• Romania – Roxana Mînzatu – Executive Vice-President for People, Skills and Preparedness, Commissioner for Skills, Education, Quality Jobs and Social Rights
• Slovakia – Maroš Šefčovič – Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency
• Slovenia – Marta Kos – Commissioner for Enlargement, also responsible for the eastern neighbourhood and Ukraine’s reconstruction
• Spain – Teresa Ribera – Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Commissioner for Competition
• Sweden – Jessika Roswall – Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy

Now, each nominee will receive a letter from Von der Leyen titled “mission letters,” in which she will lay out her own ideas for their mandate. All candidates must first pass a legal screening, answer questions from parliamentary committees, and have their votes confirmed before they can assume their new positions.

This implies that candidates may face swift elimination if they are unable to secure the backing of a parliament that is much more divided politically than in past mandates. Then, the governments of the EU would have to suggest a different candidate.

According to Von der Leyen, “intensive weeks of negotiations” with EU governments produced her suggested team.

Political scheming had delayed Von der Leyen’s team’s presentation, as she needed to convince each member state to replace their male applicants with female ones to promote gender parity in higher education, Euronews reported.