In a Brussels administration where decision-making power has been heavily centralised in European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and her team, it can be difficult for the other 26 commissioners to be seen and heard.
One year into the term of this commission team, how are some of those other politicians who sit beside von der Leyen at the top of the EU’s executive arm faring?
Most expected Spain’s Teresa Ribera to become a vocal counterweight to von der Leyen. However, apart from several pointed public interventions on the Gaza war, that has not been the case.
Ribera came from the ranks of Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing government and was handed a big portfolio that includes overseeing the climate transition and the EU’s powerful competition rules that frequently brought it into conflict with Apple, Google and other US tech multinationals.
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Perhaps under pressure to avoid antagonising US president Donald Trump at a sensitive time in the transatlantic relationship, Ribera did not make a lot of noise about a significant decision to hit Google with a €2.9 billion fine in September.
Henna Virkkunen, the Finnish commissioner in charge of the union’s digital regulations, has had to tiptoe around the same political minefield.
The Trump administration and US tech executives have been forcefully pushing back on EU rules intended to put some manners on the internet and cut down on illegal content on social media feeds.
Virkkunen has had to ship the bulk of the criticism that the commission has been slow-walking investigations into Elon Musk’s X platform as a result. It doesn’t help that she is not an assured media performer.
Making sure any fines and decisions can withstand inevitable challenges at the EU courts takes time, commission officials argue.
Diplomats, EU officials and other observers have all privately commented on the absence of many big beasts in the current group of commissioners, which is known as a “college”, rather than a cabinet.
The French commissioner for industrial policy Thierry Breton, green deal architect Frans Timmermans and competition chief Margrethe Vestager, all heavy hitters during von der Leyen’s first term, are no longer there. Breton frequently clashed with the German commission president.
Rivals to von der Leyen’s influence have not really emerged so far in her second term in charge of the EU’s executive body, which proposes laws and sets the bloc’s trade policy.
There has been some noticeable tension between the commission president and Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top representative on foreign affairs. She chairs regular meetings of the 27 states’ foreign ministers, but also sits around the commission’s top table at college meetings.
Her predecessor, the Spanish socialist Josep Borrell, was often at odds with von der Leyen, particularly in how he felt the EU should respond to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, has tried to take more consequential decisions during those meetings of foreign ministers. Her efforts to convince national governments about a plan to jointly contribute up to €40 billion in extra funding for Ukraine this year fell flat, due to a lack of buy-in from capitals.
Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, a veteran of the commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, probably did as well as could be expected in navigating the threats of an all-out trade war between Europe and the US. His knack for troubleshooting delicate political situations previously earned him the nickname “Mr Fix It”. That moniker will probably be put to the test again, knowing Trump.
The most vulnerable of the EU commissioners is Olivér Várhelyi, the pick of Hungary’s far-right leader Viktor Orban. Von der Leyen puts a huge amount of stock in whether she can trust someone or not. There is little evident trust for Várhelyi.
The commissioner for health and animal welfare came under pressure in recent months, following reported allegations that some Hungarian diplomats posted to the EU were espionage agents, back when Várhelyi was the country’s top diplomat in Brussels.
Várhelyi will find himself in hot water with von der Leyen if any further revelations contradict his claims to have known nothing about any alleged spy ring.
EU commissioner for justice Michael McGrath is seen as having had a solid start to his Brussels role. The Republic’s former finance minister appears to have the trust of von der Leyen to go out and sell the message of the day.
He will have a heavier legislative workload next year. McGrath is due to table stricter EU-level regulation of social media influencers and the addictive tricks social media apps use to keep people scrolling.
The Digital Fairness Act will certainly draw resistance from Big Tech firms and possibly the attention of Trump, something McGrath will be very conscious of, as will von der Leyen.
