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Barroso unveals new european commission { August 11 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Barroso unveils new European Commission
By Reuters. Thursday August 11, 2004 14:06.
The incoming European Commission chief unveiled the line-up of his new team on Thursday, handing the top competition job to a Dutch woman and resisting pressure to give the best posts to EU heavyweights.
The EU executive’s president-elect Jose Manuel Barroso said his commission would work to boost prosperity, solidarity and security in the 25-nation bloc while making it clear to sometimes sceptical citizens exactly what the EU does.
“The priorities are ... to make Europe understood by its citizens,” he said.
Barroso named Neelie Kroes of the Netherlands as the EU’s next competition commissioner, the first woman to hold the post in which multibillion-euro mergers are decided upon.
“She has the qualities of independence necessary,” he said. ”This is a crucial role in the commission.”
The most keenly watched portfolios were the so-called “money jobs” -- competition, trade, economic and monetary affairs and the internal market.
Ireland’s Charlie McCreevy was given the internal market portfolio, while Spain’s Joaquin Almunia will be in charge of economic and monetary affairs, continuing his current position.
Among the large EU member states, Britain’s Peter Mandelson won the coveted trade post, Germany’s Guenter Verheugen became the bloc’s industry chief and France’s Jacques Barrot took on transport.
HIGH STAKES
Barroso’s most difficult task was to satisfy demands of big EU members such as Britain, France and Germany, without giving the impression of surrender.
“People will look for evidence that the president behaved in an independent way, that he showed no sign of bowing to pressure from big member states. Any sign that he had would be bad,” said John Palmer, head of the European Policy Centre thinktank.
“A lot is at stake here, because the next five years will probably be decisive for a longer-term shape of the European project,” he told Reuters.
Speculation has been rife for weeks about the format of the new Commission, due to take office on Nov. 1 for a 5-year term.
The regional policy portfolio went to Poland’s Danuta Huebner, agriculture to Denmark’s Mariann Fischer Boel, while Italy’s Rocco Buttiglione was named ommissioner for justice and home affairs.
EU jobs such as education or consumer protection are seen as less attractive, although each commissioner has the same clout when the panel votes on proposing a new law or on taking legal action against a member state -- the executive’s main powers.
The new commissioners include three former prime ministers, five former foreign ministers and three former finance ministers. More women were nominated by their governments than ever before: one-third of the new executive will be female.
Sweden’s Margot Wallstrom was made vice president in charge of institutional relations and communications.
Full list:
President: Jose Manuel Barroso (Portugal)
Vice-president, institutional relations, communications: Margot Wallstrom (Sweden)
Vice-president, enterprise and industry: Guenter Verheugen (Germany)
Vice-president, transport: Jacques Barrot (France)
Vice-president, administration, audit and anti-fraud: Siim Kallas (Estonia)
Vice-president, justice and home affairs: Rocco Buttiglione (Italy)
Other Commission members:
Information society and media: Viviane Reding (Luxembourg)
Environment: Stavros Dimas (Greece)
Economic and monetary affairs: Joaquin Almunia (Spain)
Regional policy: Danuta Huebner (Poland)
Fisheries, Maritime affairs: Joe Borg (Malta)
Budget: Dalia Grybauskaite (Lithuania)
Science and research: Janez Potocnik (Slovenia)
Education, culture: Jan Figel (Slovakia)
Health, consumer protection: Markos Kyprianou (Cyprus)
Enlargement: Olli Rehn (Finland)
Humanitarian aid: Louis Michel (Belgium)
Energy: Laszlo Kovacs (Hungary)
Competition: Neelie Kroes-Smit (Netherlands)
Agriculture: Mariann Fischer Boel (Denmark)
External Relations: Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Austria)
Internal Market: Charlie McCreevy (Ireland)
Employment, social policy: Vladimir Spidla (Czech)
Trade: Peter Mandelson (Britain)
Taxation and customs: Ingrida Udre (Latvia)
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