BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday she had appointed resigning Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne as European Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, while Lithuanian Andrius Kubilius will take over the defence portfolio.
The President of the European Commission also appointed Finland’s Henna Virkkunen to Technological Sovereignty; Estonia’s Kaja Kallas inherits foreign policy while Spain’s Teresa Ribera has been appointed European Commissioner for Competition.
The European Commission, the most powerful body in the European Union (EU), is responsible for proposing new legislation and managing the bloc’s budget. It also acts as a competition regulator and has the power to sign trade deals.
Each of the 27 Member States is represented by a Commissioner, but each position carries a different political weight depending on the portfolio allocated.
Candidates must be interviewed by the European Parliament, which must then approve each nomination.
The appointment of Stéphane Séjourné, 39, as Commissioner for Industrial Strategy is a last-minute replacement following the surprise resignation of Thierry Breton on Monday.
“I know Stéphane very well, we worked very well together in the European Parliament, and I am convinced that he will make a great European Commissioner,” Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference.
President Emmanuel Macron proposed the name of the resigning foreign minister after consulting Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the president of the European Commission added.
The Elysée had pleaded for France to obtain a “key portfolio” of European commissioner, “focused on the issues of industrial and technological sovereignty and European competitiveness”.
COMPETITIVENESS IS KEY
Ursula von der Leyen has outlined the main orientations of the new European Commission: security, democracy and competitiveness, essential for the energy transition and digitalisation.
“We want to create a circular, decarbonized and competitive economy for a fair transition for all,” she said at a press conference.
Climate change “is the backdrop to everything we do,” she added.
But compared to his first term, “the issue of security caused by the war waged by Russia in Ukraine, as well as that of competitiveness” had an importance on the composition of the new commission.
Andrius Kubilius, appointed to the Defence Ministry in a newly created role to deal with the conflict in Ukraine, will have as his main objective to strengthen the EU’s arms production capacity and military capabilities.
The new European Commissioner for Competition, the Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, will have to follow in the footsteps of the Danish Margrethe Vestager who, in recent years, has tried to put pressure on the technology giants.
She will also have to oversee the EU’s position on foreign subsidies, another hot topic as companies in the European bloc’s electric vehicle and energy production sectors struggle to defend their business models in the face of competition from abroad, particularly China.
German Ursula von der Leyen has been re-elected as President of the European Commission following this summer’s European elections.
The members of the European Commission are due to take office by the end of the year, almost at the same time as the winner of the US presidential election in November.
(Reporting from the Brussels office, written by Kate Abnett, Ingrid Melander, Tassilo Hummel, French version Zhifan Liu, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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