The family man
Ireland has made it known that former Finance Minister Michael McGrath, 47, wants an economic portfolio too. What’s tricky is that Ireland held the financial services portfolio in the outgoing commission, making a repeat a difficult sell.
In Ireland, McGrath set up a sovereignty fund fueled by corporate taxes to tackle the current and future demographic and green transition challenges.
If he’s searching for an in with von der Leyen, they might be able to bond over the fact they both have seven children.
The banker
Jozef Síkela, 57, is the Czech industry and trade minister, and would prefer an internal market or competition portfolio.
Its government sees the climate and trade job as interesting too, according to a Czech government official.
But “his whole life, his whole career, he has been working in the banking sector,” the official said, citing his long experience at the Erste Group Bank AG as a corporate and investment banker.
The outsiders
Other names may pop up over the next few weeks.
Maria Luís Albuquerque, a former Portuguese finance minister who handled the country’s bank crisis, is the second option for Lisbon.
Denmark could send its industry minister, Morten Bødskov. Sweden’s Jessika Roswall pitched competitiveness in her presentation speech and Belgium’s Didier Reynders may be keen on an economic brief. A lot of southern and eastern countries are looking at the cohesion (regional spending) post.
Much will depend on how von der Leyen shapes the jobs.
Some long-serving commissioners are here to stay — like Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis, most recently serving as economy czar, along with Slovak Maroš Šefčovič. Šefčovič this time would like “an economic portfolio, dealing with industry or competition or energy,” a government official said.
Others such as Thierry Breton, the French commissioner, are searching for a big promotion. Even if his relationship with his boss has been difficult, Breton seems convinced he has gained the right to a top-level role.
Building the structure
The idea of having vice presidents who stand above a number of commissioners ― as has been the case under von der Leyen’s first term ― can help control the group. But that’s not been to everyone’s liking.
It “has not really worked very well,” Bruegel’s Wolff said, recalling meetings of economy ministers where Dombrovskis and Italian Paolo Gentiloni, the economy commissioner, were “coming up with different messages, and weakening the position of the Commission.”
One idea circulating is to merge the budget and cohesion portfolios. Another is to carve out the many directorate-generals that were under the control of Margrethe Vestager, the competition chief.
Von der Leyen is trying to avoid having people who do not control a department, an official said, adding that not controlling it means “you don’t have the means, the staff to actually do something meaningful.”
“The internal structure of the Commission needs to be reformed,” the official said. “It needs to keep up with the reality out there, and this was not the case so far.”