European Commission President José Manuel Barroso is poised to announce the distribution of portfolios among his team of 26 commissioners, paving the way for the European Parliament to hold confirmation hearings in January. 

The list of nominees was completed on Tuesday (24 November), when the Netherlands, Malta and Denmark announced their candidates. The UK’s commissioner will be Catherine Ashton, who was appointed high representative for foreign policy (19 November). Greece proposed its candidate, Maria Damanaki, on the same day.

The Dutch decision to re-nominate Neelie Kroes means that a total of 11 commissioners will be staying on for a second term. Of those, six served a full term while the other five joined the Commission during its five-year mandate. The nomination of Ashton, Damanaki, Kroes and Hedegaard, Denmark’s climate and energy minister, means that Barroso has nine female candidates in his team, one more than in his current line-up.

If the new team is approved without any changes by the Parliament, it will contain 12 commissioners from the centre-right (including Barroso), nine Liberals and six affiliated to the centre-left Party of European Socialists.

Hearings for commissioners will be held in the week beginning 11 January. The next Commission will take office around 1 February provided Barroso’s team is approved by the Parliament in a vote planned for 20 January.

Substantial jobs

Barroso was finalising the line-up this week while faced with demands from more than half the countries to get an economics-related portfolio and pressure to provide substantial jobs to France and Germany.

France wants the internal market portfolio including financial services for its candidate, Michel Barnier. Barroso is considering dividing responsibility for financial services from the internal market brief, which might assuage the fears of the UK government that a Frenchman as commissioner for financial services would act against the interests of the City of London.

Fact File

Commissioners-designate

Austria Johannes Hahn
Belgium Karel De Gucht
Bulgaria Rumiana Zheleva
Cyprus Androulla Vassiliou
Czech Republic Štefan Füle
Denmark Connie Hedegaard
Estonia Siim Kallas
Finland Olli Rehn
France Michel Barnier
Germany Günther Oettinger
Greece Maria Damanaki
Hungary László Andor
Ireland Máire Geoghegan-Quinn
Italy Antonio Tajani
Latvia Andris Piebalgs
Lithuania Algirdas Šemeta
Luxembourg Viviane Reding
Malta John Dalli
The Netherlands Neelie Kroes
Poland Janusz Lewandowski
Romania Dacian Ciolos
Slovakia Maroš Šefcovic
Slovenia Janez Potocnik
Spain Joaquín Almunia
Sweden Cecilia Malmström
UK Catherine Ashton

Germany would like its candidate, Günther Oettinger, to combine the economics and monetary affairs portfolio with financial services.

The Spanish government would like to see Joaquin Almunia, the current commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, keep his portfolio, but Barroso is keen for all returning commissioners to change dossiers. Almunia is a contender to take over competition from Kroes. Kroes is said to be keen to take over trade from Ashton, but Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said on Tuesday that Kroes was likely to get the information society portfolio currently held by Viviane Reding from Luxembourg.

Barroso has made his task of finding substantial portfolios to satisfy member states easier by creating two new posts: a commissioner for climate action and commissioner for fundamental rights and civil liberties. Sweden is keen to have the latter portfolio.

Several countries were known to bidding for the energy job. Poland wants the post of budget commissioner for its candidate Janusz Lewandowski while Hungary wants regional policy for its candidate, László Andor, an economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Sweden, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic were looking to secure the enlargement portfolio.