The winners and losers of the new European Commission

BRUSSELS — After months of haggling with European leaders over key roles in the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen laid out a new structure and plan for her team on Tuesday. 

Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi was saddled with a new focus on animal welfare — and health  — in what is certainly revenge on the part of the Commission president for his boss’ antics and outbursts. Others, like Spain’s Teresa Ribeira, were crowned with a large portfolio, overseeing key green and economic portfolios.

Now that the puzzle is finally public, it reveals the complexities and power dynamics among European countries. 

POLITICO lays out who’s up and who’s down.  

Winners

The Baltics

Despite the population and size of the bloc’s Baltic countries, Tallinn and Riga managed to snag key portfolios in the second von der Leyen Commission. It’s a reflection of the region’s increased political relevance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, the new EU foreign policy chief, is one of the bloc’s most outspoken Russia critics. Her Finnish colleague Henna Virkkunen was nominated to be executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. 

Meanwhile, Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius is up for the role of the first-ever defense and space commissioner. And Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis, a Commission veteran, secured the economy and productivity, implementation and simplification portfolio, which will play a part in Ukraine’s future reconstruction. 

All in all, four countries that operate under the daily threat of a potential Russian invasion are in key positions to shape the Commission’s response to Moscow.

The Iberians

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Teresa Ribera, backed by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, could control an unprecedented number of key policy areas as executive vice president for the clean, just and competitive transition, in charge of coordinating the bloc’s competition policy.

Meanwhile, Portugal’s Maria Luís Albuquerque was nominated to the powerful financial services portfolio. The post is a major win for Lisbon. And it’s a personal win for Albuquerque, who was meant to be nominated to the College of Commissioners in 2014 but was swapped out for Carlos Moedas at the last minute.

The EPP

Von der Leyen’s political group, the center-right European People’s Party, won June’s European election — and her team of commissioners certainly reflects that. 

Fourteen of the 27 commissioners belong to the EPP, including von der Leyen, who reigns over them all.

Renew Europe 

Renew Europe lost big time in the aforementioned June election, dropping from third to fifth place in the European Parliament. Despite those terrible results, the European liberals managed to get five commissioners. 

Not only did they get two executive vice presidencies through France’s Stéphan Séjourné and Kallas, but they also acquired critical portfolios like enlargement, justice and rule of law.

Austria 

Immigration is a top political issue in Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party is campaigning on tighter border controls ahead of legislative elections next week. 

The decision to give the center-right Austrian People’s Party’s Magnus Brunner the internal affairs and migration portfolio could be read as Brussels’ tacit recognition of the scale of the migration challenge Europe has faced, especially in the wake of the so-called migration crisis. 

Ireland

There were signs Dublin might be lumped with a tiny portfolio after Prime Minister Simon Harris was the first leader to publicly defy von der Leyen’s demand for countries to send both a male and female candidate. That, coupled with the fact members of the European Parliament from candidate Michael McGrath’s party openly campaigned against von der Leyen, built up a sense of foreboding. But in the end, McGrath received the portfolio for democracy, justice and the rule of law. Not too shabby, all things considered. 

Losers

Glenn Micallef 

The Maltese candidate’s lack of experience as a minister and short political career led to a portfolio with little relevance at the European level and even less clout. The youngest commissioner, 35-year-old Micallef, received the intergenerational fairness, youth, culture and sport portfolio. 

“Few areas are as close to EU citizens’ daily lives” as his portfolio, Micallef said on X. “It is a true privilege.” 

Thierry Breton 

It’s possible that if the bombastic commissioner for the internal market had been nicer to von der Leyen, he might have been promoted to a powerful executive vice president post today. 

However, during the past five years, the fiery Frenchman repeatedly clashed with his boss. Earlier this year, he openly pitched himself as her potential replacement. In recent days, von der Leyen called up French President Emmanuel Macron and promised him a better portfolio if Breton was replaced with anyone else. 

Paris was only too happy to comply. 

Stéphane Séjourné was nominated to be executive vice president for prosperity and industrial strategy. Breton, meanwhile, is now unemployed and likely fuming at how everything has turned out.

Czech Republic 

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s government had high hopes when it nominated ex-investment banker Jozef Síkela, the industry and trade minister. At various points he was rumored to be a favorite for an energy or trade portfolio — and there was talk he might have swept the trade commissioner job out from under the Netherlands’ Wopke Hoekstra (who didn’t get trade anyway). In the end, Síkela ended up with a portfolio called international partnerships.

Von der Leyen offered reassurance that it was a “huge portfolio” on Tuesday. It involves a €300 billion investment program for infrastructure abroad, she noted.

12 angry men 

Spare a thought for the men — other than Breton — whose governments ditched them in exchange for a stronger portfolio as von der Leyen attempted gender balance in her lineup.

Romanian Social Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu nearly made it to the table, only to be dumped. He returned to his senior position in the European Parliament. Tomaž Vesel was sacrificed by Slovenia’s government (technically, he said he withdrew.). Bulgaria, the only country to offer up a male and female nominee, didn’t even get consideration for Julian Popov.

Belgium 

By swapping out its incumbent Didier Reynders for outgoing Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, Belgium hoped to get a decent portfolio in exchange for putting forward a woman to help von der Leyen in her quest for more gender balance. 

Still, Belgium managed to shoot itself in the foot by offering Lahbib, who is seen as a weak politician even by the Belgians themselves. They’ve now ended up with preparedness, crisis management and equality. While crisis management can be important at key moments, one diplomat quipped that “when things come to shove, von der Leyen will take over from Lahbib in times of real crisis.”

Elisa Braun and Jacopo Barigazzi contributed to this report.