European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her slate of commissioners—the equivalent of the EU executive branch’s Cabinet—for her second term today. Although women make up a majority of the top posts, the overall composition of the commission falls short of von der Leyen’s goal of gender parity, while leaning right politically. The appointments must still be confirmed by the European Parliament. (AP)
Just a day after Thierry Breton’s surprise resignation as commissioner for the Internal Market caused rare drama and intrigue in Brussels, von der Leyen’s announcement gets the commission back to the kind of nuts-and-bolts horse-trading and power politics for which it is better known. As expected given the outcome of June’s European Parliament elections, the commission shifted to the right politically, with three of the six plum executive vice president posts going to France, Spain and Italy, reflecting the pecking order of EU member states.
As with von der Leyen’s first term, however, a lot is being communicated in the titles of the various portfolios, many of which represent significant changes in emphasis from the past five years. Above all, the new titles bristle with words that convey a muscular and almost martial posture, at once both protective and proactive. The tech portfolio includes Tech Sovereignty and Security as well as Democracy. The green transition portfolio is not just Clean and Just, but also Competitive. The trade portfolio includes Economic Security in its brief. And for the first time ever, there’s a commissioner for Defense.
There’s also a lot of meaning to be parsed from which member states snagged which portfolios. That France’s Sejourne was tapped as commissioner for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy is unsurprising, as it overlaps with Breton’s remit over the past five years. But it does mark the decisive triumph of France’s preference for industrial policy over the EU’s historically neoliberal, free-market approach.
That Italy was awarded an executive vice president position was also perhaps to be expected. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has become an influential player in Brussels, and she didn’t hide her anger over the fact that the far right for which she is a champion was passed over for the so-called EU troika positions of commission president, foreign policy chief and EU Council president.
But the choice of portfolios for the Italian commissioner—Cohesion and Reforms—is both telling and alarming. Meloni has been the test case for the far right’s ability to transform the EU from within, and this clearly represents a major victory in that regard. But the word “cohesion” has ominous overtones given her movement’s identitarian and nationalist leanings.
Similarly telling is the commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration going to Austria, whose hard-right government has for years adopted and advocated for a hard-line position on migration. But it is not a surprise, as it simply entrenches the hard-right/far-right preference for a Fortress Europe that has become the reality in EU and member state politics for the past five years.
