Juncker’s team confirmed after further portfolio changes

Before MEPs voted to confirm his college of commissioners, Jean-Claude Juncker promised changes to medicines, citizenship, sustainability and space.

The proposed college of 28 commissioners put forward by Jean-Claude Juncker, the president-elect of the European Commission, was approved today (22 October) by the European Parliament. 423 MEPs voted to approve the college, 209 voted against, and 67 abstained.

The approval follows weeks of confirmation hearings by the Parliament’s committees. Juncker had to make several changes to his portfolio allocations in order to secure approval. Last week he announced two major portfolio changes,  with Violeta Bulc of Slovenia being given the transport portfolio and Maroš Šefčovič of Slovakia moved to energy union, following a rejection of the first Slovenian nominee Alenka Bratušek. This morning, before the vote, he announced further changes to portfolio allocations to address MEP concerns.

“The hearings have revealed a broad consensus around the team that I have proposed,” Juncker told MEPs this morning. “You have, however, also expressed some concerns – during the hearings and in your contacts with me. I am ready to swiftly address the issues that you identified as relevant to the functioning of the new Commission.”

Juncker said he will enlarge Frans Timmermans’ remit to include a horizontal responsibility for ‘sustainable development’. This was demanded by S&D MEPs as a condition for them approving Spanish nominee to be commissioner for energy and climate Miguel Arias Cañete.

Juncker will scrap his plan to move responsibility for medicines and pharmaceutical products from the department for health to the department for the internal market.  “I agree with you that medicines are not goods like any other,” he said. “The relevant policy will be developed jointly by Vytenis Andriukaitis and by Elżbieta Bieńkowska, who showed her incredible talents in her hearing.”

Space policy will not be part of the transport portfolio as planned. It has been removed from the portfolio to be given to Slovenian nominee Violeta Bulc and will instead remain in the remit of the department for the internal market and industry, under the responsibility of Elżbieta Bieńkowska. There were some concerns from MEPs that Bulc did not have enough experience to handle both subjects.

Juncker will remove citizenship from the portfolio of  Tibor Navracsics, the Hungarian nominee to be commissioner for education, youth, culture and citizenship. This will be added to the portfolio of Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Greek nominee to be commissioner for migration and home affairs. MEPs said earlier this month that Navracsics could not have authority over citizenship because of his close ties to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbàn, who has been accused of fundamental rights violations. To save face, Navracsics will have ‘sport’ added to his portfolio, an area that was previously missing from the portfolio titles.

The portfolio reshuffle will involve only minor changes to the Commission services structure. The biggest change is that the planned move of space issues from DG Enterprise to DG Move will not take place. Units ENTR GH1 (space policy and research), ENTR G2 (Copernicus services), directorate ENTR H (EU satellite navigation programmes) and the GNSS supervisory authority will all remain in DG Enterprise.

Unit COMM C2, responsible for the Europe for Citizens programme and the ‘New Narrative for Europe’, was meant to move to DG education and culture. It will instead be moved to DG Home Affairs.

Investor-state dispute settlements

Juncker told the MEPs that he, “took note” of the intense debates around investor-state dispute settlement in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free-trade negotiations with the United States, during the hearing of Cecilia Malmstrom. “Let me once again state my position clearly,” he said. “My Commission will not accept that the jurisdiction of courts in the EU member states be limited by special regimes for investor-to-state disputes.”

“I had thought my commitment on this point was very clear but I am happy to clarify and reiterate it here today as a number of you have asked me do so: In the agreement that my Commission will eventually submit to this House for approval there will be nothing that limits for the parties the access to national courts or that will allow secret courts to have the final say in disputes between investors and states,” he said.

Juncker also addressed his planned €300 billion investment package for jobs, growth and competitiveness, which also became a contentious topic during the hearings. “I will not now tell you all the details of what this package will contain – how can I when my new Team has yet to even meet to discuss it?” he said. “You will just have to have a little faith. You have my word that my College will start working on this day and night from the moment we take office. If you give us your support today, we will present the package before Christmas.”

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