The News
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her appointments for the European Union’s top jobs Tuesday, with a focus on reversing the bloc’s ailing economy, energy and building up security.
Key nominations include Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius as the EU’s first defense commissioner, who will be tasked with building up military manufacturing, a rising concern as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on.
France’s Stéphane Séjourné will be in charge of industrial strategy, a position previously held by Thierry Breton, who made a name with his combative stance toward Big Tech. Breton resigned Monday, having repeatedly clashed with von der Leyen throughout her last term. Poland’s Piotr Serafin will oversee the EU’s budget.
Von der Leyen’s appointments await final approval by the European Parliament.
SIGNALS
Commission includes defense post to shore up eastern borders
President von der Leyen appointed her first defense commissioner: Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius, a staunch Ukraine supporter who has previously suggested that Russian-friendly European nations should “look into the possibility to offer to Putin territory in their own country,” Politico noted. Kubilius will be tasked with unifying the bloc’s fragmented defense industry as it tries to bolster itself against further Russian aggression and continue support for Ukraine. European officials are worried that both may be in greater jeopardy depending on the outcome of November’s US election.
Nominations put renewed emphasis on tech regulation and innovation
President von der Leyen said in a statement that her team would be “dedicated to… competitiveness, digitalization, and decarbonization” with the top industry jobs given to more “interventionist” countries — namely, Spain, Italy, and France, the Financial Times reported. All three nations’ governments have previously called for more joint EU spending to boost innovation, looser budget deficit rules, and a larger role for industry to counter Europe’s economic sluggishness. Léo Lictevout, a journalist at political magazine Contexte, noted on X the number of tech-focused nominees: “We lost a tech commissioner yesterday,” he wrote, referring to former markets commissioner Thierry Breton’s surprise resignation, “Today we get 7.”
Thierry Breton, one of Europe’s highest-profile technocrats, is out
A member of the European Commission under von der Leyen’s last term, Thierry Breton had overseen some of the EU’s highest-profile portfolios, including its regulation of Big Tech and its efforts to ramp up arms production. France — Europe’s second-largest economy and a founding member of the EU — had been vying for a vice presidential position for Breton in the new commission, according to French officials, as well as an expanded portfolio that would encompass the bloc’s industrial and defense policy. Breton, however, quit: In announcing his departure, he said von der Leyen was the reason he left.