More Commission portfolio changes expected

Authority over citizenship and space may be moved in response to the demands of MEPs.

Although only two portfolio changes were announced this week, Jean-Claude Juncker is expected to unveil more minor changes next week when he addresses the European Parliament.

On Wednesday Juncker issued a statement saying that he had decided to give Violeta Bulc, the new Slovenian nominee, the transport portfolio. Maroš Šefčovič,  Slovakia’s commissioner-designate who had been nominated for transport, was moved to the energy union portfolio. This had been the job earmarked for Alenka Bratušek, the previous Slovenian nominee who resigned last week. But Bulc was seen as too inexperienced to take up the post because it is a vice-presidency.

However the portfolio assigned to Bulc is not exactly the same as that which had been assigned to Šefčovič. The portfolio was previously called ‘transport and space’ but is now only titled, ‘transport’. Juncker intends to add it to the responsibilities of Elźbieta Bieńkowska, nominated to be commissioner for the internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Šefčovič’s energy union job description has also changed slightly from the initial plans. The area of transport has been added to the new mandate letter for energy union, meaning he will oversee Bulc’s portfolio. These two changes were made to mollify MEPs on the transport committee who are angry about losing Šefčovič and sceptical of Bulc’s lack of experience in transport or space policy, European Voice understands.

Juncker’s statement does not spell out these changes, perhaps because his team wanted to make the reshuffle appear as minimal as possible. But they are expected to be announced when Juncker addresses the Parliament next Wednesday (22 October) ahead of the confirmation vote for his Commission nominees. A few other changes are expected.

The word ‘sustainability’ will be added to the portfolio of Frans Timmermans, the Dutch nominee to be first vice-president for better regulation, inter-institutional relations, the rule of law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. This was demanded by centre-left MEPs in exchange for the confirmation of Miguel Arias Cañete as commissioner for climate and energy. MEPs were concerned that environmental and climate issues did not appear anywhere in the vice-presidency titles.

Another expected change will be the removal of ‘citizenship’ from the portfolio of Tibor Navracsics, the Hungarian nominee to be commissioenr 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, European Voice understands. 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 title, an area that was previously missing from the portfolio titles.

Juncker is probably waiting until after the confirmation hearings of Šefčovič and Bulc to announce these changes, in case more changes are demanded.

If these decisions are confirmed, it will only involve 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.

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