Commissioner for the Environment

The Environment Commissioner is the member of the European Commission responsible for environmental policy . The Environment Directorate-General has existed since the Ortoli Commission took office in 1973; in the Thorn Commission (1981–85) no member was expressly responsible for the environment. Since the end of the 1980s, the department has become increasingly important as the European Union's environmental policy has also been expanded. Since 2010, however, the Environment Commissioner has no longer been responsible for the European Union's climate policy , which has been outsourced to a separate climate protection department .

The current incumbent in the von der Leyen Commission since December 2019 is Virginijus Sinkevičius , who also heads the Oceans Commission .

Previous incumbent

Commissioner	Term of office	Country	national party	European party / political direction	Other responsibilities
Virginijus Sinkevičius	since 2019	Lithuania Lithuania	LVŽS	independent	Oceans
Karmenu Vella	2014-2019	Malta Malta	MLP	SPE	Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Janez Potočnik	since 2010	Slovenia Slovenia	LDS related parties	ELDR related parties
Stavros Dimas	2004-2010	Greece Greece	ND	EPP
Margot Wallström	1999-2004	Sweden Sweden	SAP	SPE
Ride Bjerregaard	1995-1999	Denmark Denmark	S.	SPE
Ioannis Paleokrassas	1993-1995	Greece Greece	ND	EPP
Carlo Ripa di Meana	1989-1993	Italy Italy	PSI	SPE
Lorenzo Natali	1977-1981	Italy Italy	DC	EPP
Carlo Scarascia-Mugnozza	1973-1977	Italy Italy	DC	Christian Democratic