European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced her new team of EU Commissioners. Her new Commission ('VDL-2') will feature a dozen returning Commissioners, most with different responsibilities, and many newcomers. The tasks are divided in such a way that each Commissioner must always work with one or more colleagues.
Von der Leyen stressed that her new Commission will stick to the Green Deal's climate and environmental goals; this vision of more sustainability and biodiversity and less pollution will also have to be incorporated into other European policy areas. European industry will also have to cooperate, as has already become clear from the 'EU vision of the future' as presented last week by former EU CEO Mario Draghi.
Each Commissioner will receive their own mission statement. Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra (CDA) will remain Climate Commissioner, also responsible for 'green zero growth'. Luxembourg politician Christophe Hansen has been nominated as the new Agriculture Commissioner. Although the agricultural sector in Luxembourg is small (0.2% of GDP and 0.8% of employment), Hansen is no stranger to it. As a farmer's son and nephew of Luxembourg's Minister of Agriculture, Martine Hansen, he has strong ties to the sector.
Hansen will be responsible for one of the most influential portfolios, as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) takes up a third of the EU budget. However, he will be faced with a major overhaul of those CAP subsidies: from hectare compensation to income for individual farmers.
Over the past six years as a Member of the European Parliament, he has focused on environmental issues, trade and agriculture. Hansen played a key role in the negotiations on the NSPs in the CAP policy. In the coming years, he will have to be intensively involved in the possible accession of agricultural giant Ukraine to the EU.
Von der Leyen has tasked Hansen with coming up with a vision for the future of agriculture and food supply within the first 100 days of his mandate. He will have to base this on the recently presented 'outcomes' of the strategic dialogue set up by Van der Leyen.
A major stumbling block could be the recommendation that 'environmental performance' in agriculture should be paid from a new European savings pot, and that compensation for sustainability tasks should not be reimbursed from existing agricultural subsidies.
In addition to Hansen's appointment, the new European Commission includes several other key positions, including Maros Sefčovič, who will be responsible for Trade, and Valdis Dombrovskis, who will take on the Economy and Productivity portfolio. Furthermore, Hungary's Oliver Várhelyi will take on the Health and Animal Welfare portfolio.
In the coming weeks, all commissioners will have to go to a kind of 'job interview' with the relevant specialist committees of the European Parliament. This cannot reject one or two candidates, but only accept the nomination or reject it altogether. It is possible, however, that Von der Leyen could still move parts of the tasks of the new commissioners as a result of criticism or doubts.