VdL Gives 3 Exec VP Slots To Core, But Key Econ Roles To EPP

The second College of Commissioners of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would appear to have balanced out the various calls from EU member states regarding the preferred portfolios for their nominees, while at the same time positioning candidates from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) from which she hails, in key posts. The full list of nominees and their assigned portfolios can be found here.

• Giving three of the six 'executive vice president' portfolios to three of the largest EU economies - France, Spain, and Italy - is a marked change to the outgoing Commission, where it was only Spain that held such a high-profile role in the form of HR for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.
• The appointment of Italy's Raffaele Fitto as Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms makes him the seniormost commissioner to hail from the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) political group.
• A number of key economic portfolios have gone to VdL's fellow EPP members, including Finland's Henna Virkkunen in the newly-created Exec VP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy role, Czechia's Jozef Síkela in the International Partnerships portfolio, Latvia's Valdis Dombrovskis as Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification, Poland's Piotr Serafin as Commissioner for Budget, Anti-fraud, Public Administrations, and Portugal's Maria Luís Albuquerque as Financial Services Commissioner.
• In a clear sign of the intention to limit Hungary's role in the Commission, Budapest's nominee Olivér Várhelyi takes the low-profile Health and Animal Welfare portfolio.