Barroso II Commission

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Commission President José Manuel Barroso

The Barroso II Commission is the name of the European Commission under President José Manuel Barroso , which started work on February 10, 2010. It was the first commission to come into being under the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and succeeded the Barroso I commission , which was in office after the 2004 European elections . The Barroso II Commission had 28 members, one from each of the 28 member states of the European Union .

On November 1, 2014, she was replaced by the Juncker Commission .

Members of the Commission

The following table lists the members of the Commission. Seven commissioners were vice-presidents ; they represented the President of the Commission in absentia in a specific order shown in brackets.

The colors show the affiliation to the European parties (EPP, SPE and ELDR).

Department Commissioner Member State national party european party image
president José Manuel Barroso PortugalPortugal Portugal Psd EPP
José Manuel Barroso
Vice-President (1), Foreign and Security Policy Catherine Ashton United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom Labor SPE
Catherine Ashton
Vice President (5), Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands VVD ELDR
Neelie Kroes
Vice President (7), Institutional Relations and Administration Maroš Šefčovič SlovakiaSlovakia Slovakia SMER related parties SPE related parties
Maroš Šefčovič
Vice President (2), Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding LuxembourgLuxembourg Luxembourg CSV EPP
Viviane Reding
Vice President (6), Enterprise and Industry Antonio Tajani ItalyItaly Italy PdL EPP
Antonio Tajani
Vice President (4), Transport Siim Kallas EstoniaEstonia Estonia ERP ELDR
Siim Kallas
Vice President (3), Competition Joaquín Almunia SpainSpain Spain PSOE SPE
Joaquín Almunia
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities László Andor HungaryHungary Hungary MSZP SPE
László Andor
Education, culture and youth , multilingualism Androulla Vassiliou Cyprus RepublicRepublic of Cyprus Cyprus EDI ELDR
Androulla Vassiliou
Internal market and services Michel Barnier FranceFrance France UMP EPP
Michel Barnier
energy Günther Oettinger GermanyGermany Germany CDU EPP
Günther Oettinger
development Andris Piebalgs LatviaLatvia Latvia LC ELDR
Andris Piebalgs
Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle Czech RepublicCzech Republic Czech Republic CSSD related parties SPE related parties
Štefan Füle
Financial planning and budget Janusz Lewandowski PolandPoland Poland PO EPP
Janusz Lewandowski
Fisheries and maritime affairs Maria Damanaki GreeceGreece Greece PASOK SPE
Maria Damanaki
Research and innovation Máire Geoghegan-Quinn IrelandIreland Ireland FF ELDR
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn
health Tonio Borg MaltaMalta Malta PN EPP
Tonio Borg
trade Karel De Gucht BelgiumBelgium Belgium Open VLD ELDR
Karel De Gucht
Humanitarian aid and crisis protection Kristalina Georgieva BulgariaBulgaria Bulgaria GERB related parties EPP related parties
Kristalina Georgieva
Interior Cecilia Malmström SwedenSweden Sweden FL ELDR
Cecilia Malmström
Climate protection Connie Hedegaard DenmarkDenmark Denmark Theatrical Version EPP
Connie Hedegaard
Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Cioloș RomaniaRomania Romania independent EPP related parties
Dacian Cioloș
Regional policy Johannes Hahn AustriaAustria Austria ÖVP EPP
Johannes Hahn
Taxation, Customs Union and Anti-Fraud Algirdas Semeta LithuaniaLithuania Lithuania TS-LKD related EPP related parties
Algirdas Semeta
environment Janez Potočnik SloveniaSlovenia Slovenia LDS related parties ELDR related parties
Janez Potočnik
Consumer protection Neven Mimica CroatiaCroatia Croatia SDP SPE
Neven Mimica
Economy and currency Olli Rehn (until June 2014) FinlandFinland Finland Keskusta ELDR
Olli Rehn
Jyrki Katainen (since June 2014) FinlandFinland Finland Coconut EPP
Jyrki Katainen

Choice of commission

Re-election of Barroso

Although in the run-up to the European elections in 2009, a campaign by the European Movement and the Union of European Federalists , among others , urged that various candidates for the office of Commission President be put up for debate during the election campaign , the European parties did not nominate their own candidates: The European People's Party (EPP ) recommended a second term for José Manuel Barroso , while the Party of European Socialists (PES) was unable to agree on an opponent at its party council meeting in early December 2008. Although the candidacy of PES party leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was discussed, it ultimately failed due to the refusal of the British , Spanish and Portuguese socialists . They formed the government in their respective home countries and were therefore also involved in the selection of candidates in the European Council. In addition, the Spanish and Portuguese socialists were positive about a second term in office of the Portuguese Barroso, probably also because of his national origin.

Only after the election did the chairman of the PES group S&D , Martin Schulz , announce that he would reject a new term in office for Barroso. Instead, the Social Democrats would support a possible candidacy from the liberal former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt . Barroso was also rejected from the European Green Party and the liberal ALDE parliamentary group and support for Verhofstadt was expressed. However, Verhofstadt himself did not comment and instead took over the chairmanship of the ALDE parliamentary group a little later.

Although the European Council nominated Barroso for a new Commission presidency shortly after the elections at its June summit, Parliament postponed the vote on his confirmation to September 2009. After Barroso had responded to the demands of Liberal and Socialist MPs in a programmatic paper during the summer , he was finally re-elected on September 16, 2009 by parliament in a secret ballot with 382 of 718 valid votes. He had the declared support of EPP, ALDE and ECR as well as the Spanish and Portuguese MPs of the S&D. The majority of the S&D MPs abstained; Greens / EFA , GUE / NGL and EFD voted by a majority against Barroso.

Nomination of the other committee members

After Barroso's re-election, it was time to nominate the other commissioners who had to be proposed by the national governments to the European Council . During the Swedish EU Council Presidency , it was decided to carry out the formal nomination only after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty , so that the new Commission would be composed according to the new regulations from the start. In the autumn of 2009, the national governments' staff proposals were gradually received. Since there were almost only men among them at first, Barroso explicitly called on the governments to nominate women as well. In the end there were nine women, which corresponds to the number in the outgoing Barroso I Commission .

On November 19, the British Catherine Ashton ( Labor Party ) was nominated as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy at a special summit of the European Council . The PES, the second largest group in Parliament, had called for a female social democrat for this post, while EPP member Herman Van Rompuy was appointed President of the European Council in return .

On November 27, after the last governments had made their proposals, Barroso presented the distribution of the political departments. This division is left to the Commission President alone, even if national governments had expressed preferences for the Commissioner's portfolio from their respective country and informal preliminary arrangements took place. Some of the policy areas were redesigned by Barroso; For example, the justice, freedom and security department was divided into a justice department and a domestic policy department ; A new Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Protection department has been spun off from the Development and Humanitarian Aid department . The department for climate protection was newly created . In contrast, the multilingual department newly created in 2007 was merged with the education department, and the previous consumer protection and health departments were also merged. The Taxation and Customs Union department was expanded to include the areas of audit and fraud prevention ; the administrative department , to which these areas were previously assigned, has been incorporated into the department for institutional relations . No commissioner is expressly responsible for the communication strategy area , previously part of the institutional relations department. The European Neighborhood Policy has been moved from the external relations portfolio (which has now been taken over by the High Representative ) to the enlargement portfolio. The information society and media department has been renamed “Digital Agenda”. Eleven of the Commissioners of the Barroso II Commission had previously belonged to the Barroso I Commission , but all of them changed portfolios.

All nominated commissioners came from either the European People's Party (EPP), the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party (ELDR) or the Social Democratic Party of Europe (SPE) or parties closely related to them (12 EPP Commissioners, 9 ELDR and 6 PES). While in the Barroso I Commission the political origin of the commissioners hardly played a role in everyday political life, the European parties and their political groups in the European Parliament announced closer cooperation with the commissioners of their respective political directions before the Barroso II commission was appointed. This should give the commission the character of a three-party coalition rather than an expert group.

Conflict over the approval of the European Parliament

Before being appointed, the nominated commissioners had to be confirmed by the European Parliament . For this purpose, the nominated commissioners were questioned from January 11th to 19th, 2010 by the responsible committees of the European Parliament . Several candidates were criticized for a lack of content-related competence. A second hearing was therefore scheduled for the Neelie Kroes ( ELDR ) proposed for the Digital Agenda department . The nominee Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Bulgarian Rumjana Schelewa ( EPP ), who was criticized not only for lack of competence but also for allegedly providing false information about her secondary earnings during a previous mandate as a member of the European Parliament , announced her resignation on January 19, 2010 to the office. The Bulgarian government proposed Kristalina Georgiewa in her place , which was approved at her hearing in parliament.

The chairman of the social democratic group S&D , Martin Schulz , also announced that the parliament would only give its vote of approval for the commission if the commission assured beforehand that it would take up all legislative initiatives of the parliament during its term of office. The right of initiative for EU legal acts lies formally exclusively with the Commission. This accepted Parliament's proposals mostly, but not in every case.

On February 9, 2010, the commission was finally confirmed by 488 votes to 137, with 72 abstentions. The majority voted for the Commission, EPP , S&D and ALDE , the majority against GUE-NGL , Greens / EFA and EFD . The ECR abstained.

Changes

The Finnish Commissioner Olli Rehn won a seat in the European Parliament as the top candidate of the Finnish Center Party in the 2014 European elections. Therefore, he resigned his commission mandate on June 25, 2014. He was succeeded by Jyrki Katainen as commissioner for economics and currency . On July 16, 2014, the new transitional EU commissioners were democratically elected by the EU Parliament with a large majority; in advance they had to face a hearing before the parliamentarians. In addition to Jyrki Katainen, who replaced Olli Rehn as EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Antonio Tajani was replaced by Nelli Feroci, Viviane Reding by Martine Reicherts and Janusz Lewandowski by Jacek Dominik. Günther Oettinger became vice-president until the end of the commission.

The whereabouts of the EU commissioners

After the Barroso Commission handed over office to the Juncker Commission in November 2015 , many of the EU Commissioners have taken on other areas of responsibility. Several commissioners are again active in the successor commission of EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker , such as Günther Oettinger for Digital Economy and Society, Cecilia Malmström as EU Trade Commissioner, Kristalina Georgieva for Budget and Personnel, Johannes Hahn for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, Maros Sefkovic for Energy Union and Neven Mimica for Development.

Viviane Reding has become a board member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Agfa-Gevaert.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. EurActiv 27 Nov 2009: Barroso officially nominates its commissioners .
  2. See the campaign homepage .
  3. EurActiv, 03 Dec 2008: No Socialist candidate for Commission presidency? .
  4. EurActiv, June 10, 2009: Support for Verhofstadt to replace Barroso is growing .
  5. EurActiv, Jul 17, 2009: EU Parliament puts Barroso's application on hold .
  6. EurActiv, 16 Sep 2009: Barroso elected by a Lisbon majority .
  7. ^ EurActiv , Nov 25, 2009: Barroso II has nine wives .
  8. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 19, 2009: Socialists nominate Ashton .
  9. European Voice, November 27, 2009: Liberals get influential portfolios in Barroso II .
  10. EurActiv , December 11, 2009: EU heads of government shape the commission as a 'coalition government' .
  11. EurActiv , Jan 8, 2010: Tension mounts before EU 'job interviews' .
  12. Information on the hearings on the homepage of the European Parliament .
  13. ^ Deutsche Welle , January 13, 2010: Power games and questions of competence .
  14. Focus, January 1, 2010: Hearings continued: Kroes has to "detain" .
  15. ^ Die Zeit , January 19, 2010: Barroso's candidate Schelewa gives up .
  16. ↑ 2010/41 / EU, Euratom: Council decision of 22 January 2010 - in agreement with the President-elect of the Commission - adopting the list of other persons proposed by the Council as members of the Commission and repealing and replacing the Decision 2009/903 / EU . In: Official Journal of the European Union . L, No. 20, 2010, pp. 5-6.
  17. EurActiv , Feb. 4, 2010: A brilliant performance by Bulgarian EU candidate impresses parliament .
  18. Handelsblatt , January 18, 2010: EU Parliament demands right of initiative .
  19. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 9, 2010: Barroso: "Radical turning away from the status quo" .
  20. Voting behavior of the members of the European Parliament in the election of the commission ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on VoteWatch.eu. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / votewatch.eu
  21. Reuters: Katainen will replace Rehn as EU currency commissioner until autumn , June 25, 2014, last accessed: June 30, 2014.
  22. Handelsblatt: [1] , July 16, 2014.
  23. [2]