Von der Leyen names new European Commission with focus on security, growth, climate change

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) -European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday named a new team to lead the European Union’s most powerful institution for the next five years, focused on tackling challenges to the region’s security, competitiveness and growth.

Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius will be the EU’s first defence commissioner, with the new role designed to build up European military manufacturing capacity in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, on the bloc’s eastern flank.

Spain’s Energy and Environment Minister Teresa Ribera will be the new antitrust chief tasked with reining in the power of Big Tech and also ensuring that the EU achieves its green goals.

“The whole college (Commission) is committed to competitiveness,” von der Leyen told a press conference, with the aim being “building a competitive, decarbonised and circular economy, with a fair transition for all.”

Climate change “is the major backdrop of all what we are doing,” von der Leyen said.

But, compared to her first five-year term, “the topic of security, triggered by the Russian war in Ukraine, but also the topic of competitiveness, have … much more impact,” she said.

The European Commission has the power to propose new EU laws, block mergers between companies and sign free trade deals.

All candidates will undergo hearings with lawmakers in the European Parliament who have to sign off on their nomination.

Each of the 27 member states will have one seat at the Commission’s table, a role comparable to a government minister, although its political weight varies greatly depending on the portfolio.

The EU’s two biggest countries have top jobs in the Commission – von der Leyen is German, and France’s outgoing foreign minister Stephane Sejourne will be in charge of the key portfolio of industrial strategy.

Poland’s nominee Piotr Serafin was appointed to the powerful job of overseeing the EU’s budget.

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Ribera, with a record as one of Europe’s most ambitious policymakers on climate change, could step up outgoing antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s crackdown against Big Tech.

She will also seek to ensure the EU’s single market is not distorted by companies benefiting from foreign subsidies.

Key jobs have also gone to smaller member states.

Estonia’s Kaja Kallas will be in charge of foreign policy. She has used her position as Estonia’s prime minister to become one of the most vocal critics of neighbouring Russia among European leaders – and one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine’s bids to join the EU and NATO.

Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic will oversee trade policies, the Netherlands’ Wopke Hoekstra will tackle climate policies, Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis will have the economy portfolio and Finland’s Henna Virkkunen will oversee tech-sovereignty, security and democracy.

All commissioners will report to von der Leyen, who this summer was handed a second term as EU chief executive by member states after her political camp won the most votes in EU elections.

The next EU Commission is expected to take office by the end of the year, meaning one of its first tasks will be fielding the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November.

A second presidency for Donald Trump could sharply alter Western unity on supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and up-end EU-US trade relations.

There are 11 women in the Commission team von der Leyen proposed on Tuesday, well short of the gender balance she targeted. She said the imbalance was even worse before she negotiated with member states so they proposed more women for the jobs.

Each new commissioner will need to pass a hearing in the European Parliament, expected in the coming weeks, in which EU lawmakers will attempt to extract promises from the nominees on what they will deliver if they get the job.

The EU Parliament can block Commission nominees – with Hungary’s Oliver Varhelyi among the candidates EU officials expect to be put under pressure during his hearing.

There was some drama on Monday on the Commission’s line-up, when, in order to secure a hefty portfolio, French President Emmanuel Macron picked Sejourne as its new candidate instead of the incumbent, Thierry Breton, who had repeatedly clashed with von der Leyen.

(Reporting by Marine Strauss, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Jan Strupczewski, Foo Yun Chee, Andrew Gray, Phil Blenkinsop, Kate Abnett in Brussels, Bart Meijer in Amsterdam, Tassilo Hummel in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Christina Fincher and Sharon Singleton)