Of the 27 outgoing European commissioners, seven have been re-nominated by their governments. In addition to Ursula von der Leyen (Germany - EPP), they are Thierry Breton (France), Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia), Dubravka Suica (Croatia), Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands), Maros Sefcovic (Slovakia) and Oliver Varhelyi (Hungary).
Appointed European commissioner for the internal market in 2019, Thierry Breton (Renew) is the architect of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). An engineer by training and an expert in digital and industrial issues, he has managed a number of public and private companies during his career, and was minister for the economy, finance and industry during Jacques Chirac's presidency in 2005.
Valdis Dombrovskis (EPP) is vice chairman of the Committee on Economic and Social Affairs. He also holds the trade portfolio and represents the commission on the Eurogroup. He emerged on the European scene in 2014 when he was appointed European commissioner for the euro and social dialogue in the Juncker commission. An economist by training and a pure politician, he has alternated between European and international mandates during his career. He was prime minister of Latvia from 2009 to 2014.
Dubravka Šuica (EPP) is also vice president of the European Commission responsible for democracy and demography. She was elected MEP in 2013 when Croatia joined the European Union. She was mayor of Dubrovnik from 2001 to 2009.
Wopke Hoekstra (EPP) has been appointed European commissioner for climate action in autumn 2023 to replace Frans Timmermans, who left to lead a parliamentary campaign in the Netherlands. He made his career in the private sector - Shell then McKinsey - before being appointed minister of finance in 2017, then minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands in 2022.
Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia) is vice president of the European Commission in charge of inter-institutional relations and the Green Deal. This diplomat by training has been a member of the commission since 2009. He successively held the portfolios of education, training, culture and youth, and then, in 2014, of the energy union in the Juncker commission, which appointed him vice president. In 2019, he became vice president responsible for interinstitutional relations and foresight and European commissioner for interinstitutional relations. In 2023, he was responsible for the Green Pact for Europe.
As Hungary's permanent representative to the European Union from 2015 to 2019, Olivér Várhelyi is Viktor Orbán's man of trust in Brussels, even though he does not belong to Fidesz, the political party chaired by the Hungarian prime minister. He is currently European commissioner for neighbourhood policy and enlargement. A diplomat by training, his first assignment was to prepare his country's entry into the EU in 2004.
The newcomers
Three typical profiles emerge from the choices made by the countries proposing new faces: ministers, MEPs and senior civil servants.
Kaja Kallas (Renew), prime minister of Estonia since 2021, was appointed by the EU heads of state and government at the end of June 2024 to become the future high representative of the union for foreign affairs, replacing the Spaniard Josep Borrell. In this capacity, she will be vice president of the commission. She entered politics in 2010 in the Estonian Reform Party founded by her father, and joined the Estonian parliament in 2011, becoming an MEP from 2014 to 2018.
Magnus Brunner (EPP) is a member of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), chaired by the current chancellor, Karl Nehammer. An experienced politician, he was a member of the Federal Council, the upper house of the Austrian Parliament, from 2009 to 2020, and was its vice president from 2018 until he joined the government in 2020. He is currently finance minister.
Dan Jørgensen (S&D) is a member of Social Democracy, the Danish centre-left political party, and is currently minister for development cooperation and global climate policy in the Frederiksen government. From 2019 to 2022, he was minister for climate, energy and supply in the same government. A member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2013, he was appointed vice chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in 2004.
Michael McGrath (Ireland - Renew) succeeded Paschal Donohoe, current president of the Eurogroup, as minister of finance. Member of parliament for County Cork from 2007 to 2020, he is a member of Fianna Fáil, Ireland's centre-right party. He is credited with creating a sovereign wealth fund to invest some of Ireland's windfall corporate tax revenues.
Teresa Ribera (Spain - S&D) has been vice president of the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez and minister for ecological transition and the demographic challenge since 2018. She is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).
Jessika Roswall (Sweden - EPP) is the country's current minister for European affairs, a post she has held since October 2022. She belongs to the Moderates, the Swedish liberal-conservative party that is a member of the EPP in the European Parliament. From October 2010 to October 2022, she was a member of the Riksdag, the Swedish parliament.
Jozef Síkela (Czech Republic) has been the minister for industry and t\rade since December 2021. During the energy crisis of 2022, in the midst of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, he helped to define the union's crisis energy policy, particularly with regard to joint gas purchases. Before joining the government, the economist by training headed several banks.
Italy has chosen Raffaele Fitto, minister for European affairs, cohesion and the recovery plan. Elected to the European Parliament in 2014 and 2019, he was co-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament from 2019 to 2022. Between 2008 and 2011, he was minister for relations with the regions in Silvio Berlusconi's government.
Bulgaria has put forward two candidates: former foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and former ecology minister Julian Popov. In so doing, Bulgaria is the only country to have complied with Ursula von der Leyen's request to propose both male and female candidates.
Four other candidate-commissioners have held government positions in their respective countries.
Portugal's Maria Luís Albuquerque, a member of the Social Democratic Party (PPD/PSD), was finance minister between July 2013 and November 2015. An economist by training, this senior civil servant worked at the Treasury Department from 1996 to 1999, then at the Research Department of the Ministry of the Economy. From 2007 to 2011, she headed the financial management department of the state-owned company Rede Ferroviaria Nacional (Refer).
Kostás Kadís (Cyprus) has been minister several times: of health from 2007 to 2008, of education and culture from 2014 to 2018 and of agriculture, rural development and the environment from 2018 to 2023. He is an academic specialising in environmental issues and biodiversity management.
Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania - EPP) was prime minister of Lithuania from 1999 to 2000, then from 2008 to 2012. He chaired the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Fatherland Union party from 2003 to 2015. He was a member of the Lithuanian parliament from 1992 to 2019. He has been a member of the European Parliament since June.
Henna Virkkunen (Finland - EPP) has successively been minister of education, public administration and transport in her country. A member of the conservative Kansallinen Kokoomus party, she has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. She was draftswoman of the opinions on the platform-to-business regulation and the regulation on the free movement of non-personal data.
Two other candidate-commissioners are from the European Parliament elected last June.
(Luxembourg - EPP), of course. His nomination had been in the pipeline since the coalition agreement signed last October between the CSV and the DP. But, in the name of rebalancing the potentially right-wing commission, German chancellor Olaf Scholz was campaigning for the current Luxembourg commissioner, the Socialist , to ., which aroused . Secretary general of the CSV, Hansen has had . From 2007 to 2014, he was political adviser to MEP Astrid Lulling. He then worked as environment attaché at Luxembourg's permanent representation to the EU. An MEP from 2018 to 2023, he was elected second quaestor of the European Parliament in 2022. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2023, he then headed the CSV list in the 2024 European elections and regained his seat in Strasbourg.
Victor Negrescu (Romania - S&D) is a member of the Romanian Social Democratic Party. He was an MEP from 2014 to 2017 and without interruption since 2020. He is known for having been the rapporteur for the legislative dossier that led to the creation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.
The last four candidates currently known come from the senior civil service.
Glenn Micallef (Cyprus) was head of cabinet for prime minister Robert Abela until last June. In this capacity, he has been his 'sherpa' in technical negotiations at European level for the last four years. Prior to that, he was director general of the EU coordination department at the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At 34, he would be the youngest of the commissioners. An economist by training, he has above all a technical profile.
Piotr Serafin (Poland) has been Poland's permanent representative in Brussels since the end of 2023. He is no stranger to the European institutions. Between 2014 and 2019, he headed the cabinet of Donald Tusk, then president of the European Council. He was also deputy director of the cabinet of the budget commissioner from 2010 to 2012, Polish secretary of state for European affairs from 2012 to 2014 and director of energy, transport and telecommunications at the Council of the EU from 2020 to 2023.
Apóstolos Tzitzikóstas (Greece - EPP) has been governor of the Region of Central Macedonia since 2013. In 2015 he joined the European Committee of the Regions, which he chaired from 2020 to 2022. He has also been president of the Union of Greek Regions since 2019.
Tomaž Vesel (Slovenia) is a lawyer by training. He was president of the Slovenian Court of Audit between 2013 and 2022, having been its first vice president from 2004.
Takes office on 1 November
At the time of publication of this article, only Belgium had not nominated its candidate.
In Belgium, the priority is to form a new coalition government. In this context, all the portfolios are up for negotiation: ministers, secretary of state and commissioner. Which complicates matters. Five years ago, in a similar context, Didier Reynders inherited the post. And he could well do it again.
Until we know Belgium's candidate, the commission has eighteen or nineteen men and seven or eight women. In 2019, there were thirteen women. Ursula von der Leyen's wish that a member state not reappointing its outgoing commissioner should put forward a male candidate as well as a female candidate has not been respected. In terms of political balance, the EPP has ten commissioners, the Socialists four and the Liberals three. Six commissioners claim no label.
Once the college of commissioners is complete, von der Leyen will have to allocate the various portfolios and the post of vice president. Under the EU treaties, this is her prerogative. She has already interviewed the nominated candidates to form her opinion. Once the composition of the commission has been finalised and approved by the European Council, the commissioners will have to appear before the MEPs, who will have to approve their candidacies. Approval is not a foregone conclusion. In 2019, MEPs rejected three candidates for commissioner: Romania's Rovana Plumb, Hungary's László Trócsányi and France's Sylvie Goulard.
The von der Leyen II Commission is due to take office on 1 November 2024.
Read this report in French