European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen distributed major positions in her team, prompting varying responses among European leaders.
Poland
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed satisfaction with the decision of the Commission President to hand over the much-coveted budget, anti-fraud, public administration portfolio to Polish candidate Piotr Serafin.
A strong portfolio for Polish Commissioner Piotr Serafin: budget, public administration and anti-fraud. Or, to put it simpler: money, staff and what we like best.
Poland is the largest recipient of EU funds. In 2023, it received €8.2bn. This is not the first time the country has been entrusted with the budget portfolio in the European Commission.
However, Piotr Müller, a recently elected MEP from the conservative PiS party, argued that Poland deserved an even more important seat in the new Commission. He listed industry, energy, the internal market and agriculture as key portfolios that Warsaw should have aspired to.
Germany
Von der Leyen’s proposed portfolio did not resonate with Germany’s ruling coalition parties. She provoked anger by nominating Italy’s Europe minister, Raffaele Fitto, for one of the six executive vice-presidential posts, although the positions were still to be approved by parliament.
The head of the SPD delegation in the European Parliament, René Repasi, also warned that von der Leyen would lose credibility if she nominated an Italian as her deputy, given that both his boss and his party voted against her among EU leaders and in the European Parliament. He added that only 40 per cent of the commissioners were women, contrary to von der Leyen’s pledge to restore gender parity.
However, Gunther Krichbaum, the CDU’s leading MEP on European affairs, welcomed the fact that “Commissioners belonging to the European People’s Party (EPP) will be responsible for the topics of prosperity, security, migration and agriculture, which are important for Europe.”
Italy
Italy’s ruling parties welcomed Rafaele Fitto as executive vice president, although opposition parties voiced mixed reactions. While the Social Democrats took a cautious stance, the Five Star Movement expressed strong criticism and said it wanted to vote against Fitto’s nomination in the European Parliament.
Former Prime Minister and M5S leader Giuseppe Conte condemned modern politics in his post on X:
Both at the national and international level, politics now seems exclusively devoted to pursuing a strategy of military escalation, embracing a frantic race for rearmament. (…) Today more than ever the call for peace and negotiated solutions to conflicts must rise loudly from the streets and squares of our cities. We must not surrender to the inevitability of war. For this reason, I invite you all to take to the streets: our community and all citizens.
The ruling majority remains united and sees Fitto’s appointment as a testament to the positive work of the government of current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Lega leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini also wished Fitto all the best, expressing confidence that “he will represent Italy’s interests with common sense and pragmatism.”
However, MEP Valentina Palmisano stated that Fitto’s experience as minister showed “clear managerial incompetence, particularly in the allocation of resources from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).”
Entrusting such a key European role to someone who failed in managing strategic funds is an unacceptable mistake. For this reason, the M5S will vote against the new European Commission and Fitto’s candidacy.
Sweden
The appointment of Jessika Roswall as European Commissioner for the Environment was received very positively by the Swedish authorities. She would “have an important job to help preserve our environment and bring balance to nature… develop a more sustainable and competitive economy,” von der Leyen stated.
At a brief press conference on Tuesday, the former Swedish minister for EU affairs said she was “very happy” with her portfolio. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson was also pleased, as Roswall would oversee forestry-related issues, which he called “crucial for Sweden’s growth and climate transition.”
In the new Commission, she will work closely with Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands), who will retain his role as Climate Commissioner, and Teresa Ribera (Spain), the new Executive Vice President in charge of clean and just transition.
Swedish Green MEP Alice Bah Kuhnke expressed concerns in a written statement:
The fact that Sweden has been given responsibility for the EU’s environmental work is worrying, given how the government has driven Swedish environmental work into the ground.
Bah Kuhnke also believes Roswall should “give good answers” at the hearing about Sweden’s rejection of the EU’s nature restoration law, which Roswall must support during her tenure.
Bulgaria
GERB leader and former prime minister Boyko Borissov expressed his gratitude for the portfolio of startups, research and innovation that von der Leyen allocated to Bulgarian appointed commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva.
Borissov was the only party leader in Sofia to comment on the portfolio, as Zaharieva is an acting MP and former minister in two of his governments.
Economy, industrialisation, competitiveness, innovation, and start-ups are the most powerful programmes which suit Bulgaria. I thank Ursula von der Leyen for what they have done for Bulgaria and this is a portfolio suitable for what we write in our programmes for Bulgaria.
Bulgaria has several supercomputers, the most modern of which, Hemus, started operating about a year ago. The money for it was allocated by the European Commission within the framework of the Operational Programme for Innovation and Growth. However, almost all European countries have such computers.
On Tuesday, GERB said Zaharieva’s portfolio was allegedly “one of the most powerful” in the European Commission, as Horizon Europe had a budget of almost 100 billion euros. However, former Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, now a deputy from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, does not share Borissov’s enthusiasm for the importance of the portfolio.
The Bulgarian candidate received a modest portfolio, as we expected – startups, research and innovation. Bulgaria is among the worst in this field, it is not clear how this portfolio corresponds to the expertise and experience of the Bulgarian candidate-commissioner. After all, she is a former Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs… It seems that Ursila von der Leyen was wondering what to give Zaharieva and was riding on the momentum of the last term.
He hopes that the lack of expertise in the area will not cause problems during Zaharieva’s hearing in the European Parliament.
