Ursula von der Leyen will serve another five years as European Commission president after securing enough support from the European Parliament. But who will she task with heading up energy and climate policy?
In the end, von der Leyen won a healthy number of votes from MEPs in Strasbourg last week, significantly improving on the narrow margin she just about secured in 2019.
Now the German official can concentrate on putting together her Commission team, deciding what jobs will be on offer and who could potentially fill them.
Currently, energy policy is headed by Estonia’s Kadri Simson. We already know that Simson will not be continuing in that role, as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas herself has been named as the EU’s new head of foreign policy.
Each country only gets one Commissioner post, so Simson is out of the running, which means that the energy job will have to be reassigned to somebody else. If the job is even maintained in von der Leyen 2.0.
The energy Commissioner position has suffered a remarkable loss of prestige and power in recent years, as it has gradually been absorbed by other portfolios like industry and the Green Deal.
Gone are the days when energy was the job every country wanted to have. It is not too difficult to imagine that energy may well be attached to another portfolio like green industry or climate in this new term.
We know that there will be no ‘Green Deal II’ job, which was initially overseen by the Netherlands’ Frans Timmermans, as von der Leyen’s right hand man. These five years will be about implementation not legislation, after all.
Leading the pack of potential candidates to snag that gig is Spain’s Teresa Ribera, a deputy prime minister who has made no secret of the fact that she is interested. Ribera enjoys government support and the socialists can count on a top job in this Commission.
If energy is folded under this job, it would make Spain by far the most frequent holder of the energy position, having already held it four times in the past.
France may have something to say about that: industry boss Thierry Breton may get the nod to stay on, but whether Paris wants to snag an economics and trade job instead is still not clear.
Timmermans’ replacement, Wopke Hoekstra, could also be within a shout of taking on the energy job, as he has already been nominated by the new Dutch government to be their Commissioner candidate.
He currently takes care of climate policies and is helping out with transport, after his Romanian colleague, Adina Valean, quit her post to take up her seat in the European Parliament.
But Hoekstra is not guaranteed to stay in his current position. When he was pitched as Timmermans’ substitute, he faced a grilling by the Parliament over his past ties with McKinsey’s, a consultancy he used to work for.
As part of his confirmation process, Hoekstra promised to release all of the information he could about his past clients and projects while employed there.
MEPs are reportedly largely dissatisfied with how Hoekstra kept up his side of the deal, so whether that would come back to haunt the Dutchman in a second hearing, remains to be seen.
Other names will enter the fray once governments start nominating candidates in the coming weeks. Beyond the ‘who’ there is also the question of ‘what’ Commissioners will be doing.
During her speech to Parliament last week, von der Leyen mentioned that one of her Commissioners would be tasked with overseeing building policies in the EU. Whether this means a dedicated position or a position with that responsibility, remains to be seen.
Regardless of the details, this is a massive part of the EU’s energy and climate challenge, so it would make sense if the energy Commissioner is tasked with overseeing it.
Von der Leyen also mentioned that an official would be tasked with ensuring good intergenerational policymaking. Climate is obviously top among the areas of concern that will affect younger people, so maybe the next green chief will be in charge of that as well.
Officials hope to have a new Commission in place by 1 November but there is a lot of work to be done first. Governments have to nominate candidates – easier said that done for countries like Belgium and Bulgaria that have not formed a government yet – and von der Leyen has to then decide what jobs they can do.
Then the Parliament gets involved. Each candidate will be questioned by the committee or committees associated with the portfolio. MEPs tend to reject at least one candidate either because there is always a bad apple that needs throwing out or a sacrificial lamb needs to be found so the Parliament can flex its muscles.
This all takes time. We will be in for quite a wait until we know for sure who will be the new energy boss.
Want more updates and analysis of what is happening in the world of energy and climate? Interested in finding a job in the sector or more information about public tenders? Sign up to our Energy Rundown newsletter here!
