Ursula von der Leyen unveils new European Commission team, Stéphane Séjourné gets industrial strategy portfolio

After weeks of political battles, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her new team of commissioners and their portfolios in Strasbourg on Tuesday 17 September. The allocation of portfolios to the 27 commissioners – one per Member State – is a key moment to launch the five-year mandate of this new Commission, the European executive.

Among the six vice-presidents of the Commission, there are four women – the Spanish Teresa Ribera, the Finnish Henna Virkkunen, the Estonian Kaja Kallas and the Romanian Roxana Mînzatu – and two men, the Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné and the Italian Raffaele Fitto, minister of Giorgia Meloni.

The head of French diplomacy, Stéphane Séjourné, close to Emmanuel Macron, will therefore take over a key portfolio for industrial strategy within the new European Commission. Chosen at the last minute to the detriment of the outgoing Thierry Breton, he will be responsible for the recovery of European industry, a major priority for the coming years.

The new team includes eleven women, a proportion of 40%, the German official announced on Tuesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.^me Von der Leyen, who wanted parity in this team of 27 commissioners, explained that the initial proposals from the member states gave a share of 22% of women. “It was completely unacceptable”she stressed, while acknowledging that, despite the progress made in the final stretch, there was “still a lot of work to do”.

Painful negotiations

The European Union must set out its priorities at a crucial geopolitical time, with the war in Ukraine, the US presidential campaign and economic competition from China.

Behind the scenes, negotiations for the positions were painful, right up until the last minute. On Monday, it was the influential outgoing French commissioner Thierry Breton who resigned with a bang, the victim of his execrable relations with Mr.^me von der Leyen. To replace him, Emmanuel Macron had proposed a close friend, Stéphane Séjourné, the resigning Minister of Foreign Affairs. Paris was then hoping for a vice-presidency of the Commission and a broad portfolio dedicated to the “industrial and technological sovereignty and European competitiveness”.

After this presentation of Ursula von der Leyen’s team, the potential commissioners will have to pass hearings before MEPs and submit to a vote of approval, an institutional arm wrestling match with the Parliament which often wants to mark its territory by rejecting certain candidates.

Several MEPs would like to bring down the Hungarian candidate, accused of not listening to the European Parliament and too close to the positions of the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. As part of the Hungarian presidency of the EU, Mr Orban was due to speak in Strasbourg on Wednesday, but cancelled his visit due to the Boris storm affecting central Europe.