Von der Leyen gives top economic jobs to largest EU countries

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The EU’s largest member states will hold Brussels’ top industrial and economic jobs, as the European Commission seeks to turn around the continent’s lagging competitiveness.

Ursula von der Leyen, the German head of the EU executive, on Tuesday put forward her new team of commissioners, saying it was “dedicated to . . . competitiveness, digitalisation and decarbonisation” and “not preserving the old . . . but embracing the new”.

France’s nominee Stéphane Séjourné would oversee an industrial strategy with “innovation and investment at its heart”, while Italy’s Raffaele Fitto would run cohesion fund spending, she said.

Spain’s Teresa Ribera will be one of six commission executive vice-presidents, overseeing a “clean, just and competitive transition”, including holding the powerful competition policy brief as Europe’s antitrust regulator.

Poland’s Piotr Serafin will take charge of managing the bloc’s budget, including drawing up the next one for 2028-2034.

Trade policy would be overseen by Slovakia’s Maroš Šefčovič, in his fourth five-year term, von der Leyen said, with climate policy and clean growth being run by Wopke Hoekstra from the Netherlands.

The EU’s enlargement strategy, which has surged in importance following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, will be headed by Marta Kos, the Slovenian presumptive nominee. The bloc has opened talks with Ukraine and Moldova, with several Balkan countries also in talks to join. Slovenia is a strong advocate of their admission.

Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis will police EU fiscal policy and seek to reduce red tape.

Portugal’s Maria Luís Albuquerque will lead efforts to integrate Europe’s fragmented capital markets, which has become a top priority to stop capital outflows to the US and provide more cash for EU investment. “There’s huge urgency and pressure to get it done,” von der Leyen said.

The effort to decarbonise over the past five years, which has generated huge amounts of new rules for companies, will be replaced by a push for economic growth and higher defence spending to guard against Russia and other geopolitical rivals. 

But von der Leyen said the threat of climate change remained and was “a major backdrop to what we are doing”. 

The defence commissioner, a new post given to Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius, will be tasked with trying to convince national governments to pool spending on weapons programmes to get more bang for the buck.

The European parliament will hold hearings with the commissioner candidates, who need the support of two-thirds of relevant committee members to take their jobs. There will then be a vote by the entire parliament to approve the college of commissioners, expected by November.

Von der Leyen’s initial plan was to have the new commission up and running on November 1, ahead of the US elections that take place four days later. But Slovenia held up the appointments by a week, with further delays possible if parliament rejects one or several candidates.

“It is impossible for me to foresee the length of this process,” von der Leyen said. “We are all working very hard to have the new commission in place as soon as possible.”

June’s European elections delivered a big rise in support for far-right and ultraconservative parties, including France’s Marine Le Pen and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni. A potential bone of contention with the EU legislature is the proposal to give Fitto, Italy’s current Europe minister and Meloni loyalist, a vice-presidential role overseeing billions in annual spending on the EU’s poorer regions, including Italy’s south.

Hungary’s nominee, Olivér Várhelyi, who already served as enlargement commissioner, is also expected to face tough questions from MEPs owing to his closeness to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

The other three vice-presidents are chief diplomat Kaja Kallas of Estonia, Finland’s Henna Virkkunen, in charge of technological sovereignty and democracy, and Romania’s Roxana Minzatu, who will run skills policy.

The sensitive agriculture portfolio goes to Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen, who will have to issue a plan to reduce farm emissions and improve incomes within 100 days. 

Additional reporting by Paola Tamma and Alice Hancock in Brussels