José Manuel Barroso unveiled, on 27 November, the long-awaited distribution of portfolios among members of the new Commission, who will now be able to start preparing for their hearings before the European Parliament, set for 11 to 19 January. The vote of approval will tentatively be held on 26 January. In a packed press room, where many EU civil servants were on hand to learn who would be their new boss (see box for full list of commissioners), Barroso said he was “confident that I have assigned the right jobs to the right people”. “These are my choices alone,” he added, although in fact he had to juggle with member states’ different requests, the particular strengths of the individual candidates, political balance, the number of women, and other factors. In short, he had to work out a subtle balance. On paper, he seems to have managed quite well, less than three days after receiving the names of the final appointees.

MANDATORY ROTATIO

Half of the new Commission is made up of incumbents, but they will not hold the same portfolios. This is a deliberate choice on the part of Barroso. “Ten years in the same position can be a way of slipping into a routine, except for the president, who never gets bored,” he joked. “And think about sectors like competition, which always have the same type of cases, the same interest groups. It’s better to have freshly motivated commissioners,” he said. For the most part, reappointed commissioners will hold influential portfolios. Olli Rehn, for instance, moves from enlargement to economic and monetary affairs, succeeding Joaquin Almunia, who takes over competition. In general, lots of member states secured the portfolios they had requested: Michel Barnier (France) gets the internal market, Janusz Lewandowski (Poland) obtained the budget (he dealt with budgetary matters in the European Parliament and will prepare the revision of the financial perspectives), Günter Oettinger (Germany) has been assigned to energy and Dacian Colios (Romania) will be in charge of agriculture.

BARNIER WINS CASE

One of the tough points Barroso had to work out concerned the fate of financial services, which in the end he decided to keep in the internal market portfolio assigned to Barnier. This was a demand of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made stricter regulation of the financial market a priority in the wake of the financial crisis. Barroso had also considered the possibility of placing financial services in the economic affairs portfolio. “I think this is the best solution because we have to complete the internal market for financial services,” the president explained. “The task I am giving Michel Barnier is very clear: to further develop all dimensions of the internal market. And I want the internal market really to exist because it can bring us more growth,” he added. That seemed to be his way of saying that Barnier will have to press forward with market liberalisation and thereby reassure the liberal countries concerned about the appointment of a French national. To reassure the City of London, Barnier will have a British Director-General, Jonathan Faull, who currently heads DG Justice and Home Affairs and is the former Commission spokesman.

CLIMATE PORTFOLIO

Barroso II also introduces certain innovations: Denmark’s Connie Hedegaard will be in charge of climate policy. As climate minister in Denmark, she is deeply involved in preparation of the UN conference in Copenhagen. “It is very important for climate policy to be included in all other policies. Connie Hedegaard will be in charge of channelling and implementing that and following up the international negotiations. That will give us more visibility on the international scene because there will still be a lot of work and a lot of meetings with our partners after Copenhagen,” explained Barroso. The remainder of environment policy (protection of soil, water, air quality) will be in the hands of Janez Potocnik (Slovenia). Another noteworthy innovation is the splitting of justice and home affairs, with Sweden’s Cecilia Malmström taking home affairs (security, immigration) and Luxembourg’s Viviane Reding handling justice and fundamental rights.

Barroso is confident that the European Parliament will approve these appointments, in spite of the misgiving of certain Eastern European MEPs over the fact that the Czech and Hungarian commissioners, Socialists Stefan Füle (enlargement) and László Andor (employment and social affairs), were formerly close to the Communist regimes in their countries. “I talked to all the commissioners and asked them all whether there was anything in their political or economic background that could present a problem. And after having discussed the past with them, I am sure that is not the case,” he said. The new High Representative for Foreign Policy and Commission Vice-President, Catherine Ashton (UK), is also in the sights of certain MEPs due to her activism in the early 1980s as part of a nuclear disarmament movement that was close to the Communists.

In the end, the new executive is dominated by right-of-centre members: it has 13 Conservatives, eight Liberals and six Socialists. There are nine women, including three (of seven) vice-presidents, compared with eight in the outgoing Commission. Barroso set the course for his new team. “In five years’ time, I want this Commission to have been instrumental in leading Europe out of the economic crisis towards a competitive economy that provides sustainable growth and prosperity for all our citizens for many years to come. That is our number one task.” As a response to criticisms of his first term, he promised that “this Commission will decide, it will not just debate”.

As a response to criticisms of his first term, Barroso promised that “this Commission will decide, it will not just debate”