European Commissioner Totally Explained

Everything about European Commissioner totally explained

A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each Commissioner within the college holds a specific portfolio and are led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they're the equivalent of national ministers.

Appointment

The Commissioners are appointed by the member-states together with the President, who decides upon their portfolio. The Commission in its entirety then seeks the approval of the Parliament and the Council of Ministers (by qualified majority).
It should be noted however that although Commissioners are allocated between member-states they don't represent their states; instead they're to act in European interests. Normally a member-state will nominate someone of the same political party as that which forms the government of the day. There are exceptions such as Commissioner Burke (of Fine Gael) was nominated by Taoiseach Haughey (of Fianna Fáil), or where larger states had two seats, they often went to the two major parties such as in the United Kingdom.
Partly due to the member-state selection procedure, only 8 of the current 27 Commissioners are women and no minorities have ever served on a Commission to date. (more on the makeup of the current commission)

Commissioner's oath

Each Commissioner is required to take an oath, officially before the Court of Justice of the European Communities, officially the Solemn undertaking before the Court of Justice by the President and the new members of the European Commission. The oath taken by the members of the current Barroso Commission is below(External Link

);

Accountability

In addition to its role in approving a new Commission, the European Parliament has the power at any time to force the entire Commission to resign through a vote of no confidence. This requires a vote that makes up at least two-thirds of those voting and a majority of the total membership of the Parliament. While it has never used this power, it threatened to use it against the Commission headed by Jacques Santer in 1999 over allegations of corruption. In response, the Santer Commission resigned en mass of its own accord, the only time a Commission has done so.

Salaries

In 2004, the annual salary of an individual Commissioner was 217,280 euro, while a Vice President earned 241,422 euro and the President 266,530 euro.

Portfolios

The make up and distribution of portfolios are determined by the Commission President and don't always correspond with the Commissions departments (Directorate-Generals). While some have been fairly consistent in make up between each Commission, some have only just been created or are paired with others. With a record number of Commissioners in 2007, the portfolios have become very thin even though the responsibilities of the commission have increased. President

SG, BEPA, SJ	José Manuel Barroso
Institutional Relations & Communication Strategy	COMM	Margot Wallström
Enterprise & Industry	ENTR	Günter Verheugen
Justice, Freedom, & Security	JLS	Jacques Barrot
Transport	TREN	Antonio Tajani
Administrative Affairs, Audit, & Anti-Fraud	ADMIN, PMO, DIGIT, IAS, OIB, OIL, (relations with) EPSO, OLAF	Siim Kallas
Economic & Financial Affairs	ECFIN	Joaquín Almunia
Internal Market & Services	MARKT	Charlie McCreevy
Agriculture & Rural Development	AGRI	Mariann Fischer Boel
Competition	COMP	Neelie Kroes
Trade	TRADE	Peter Mandelson
Fisheries & Maritime Affairs	FISH	Joe Borg
Environment	ENV	Stavros Dimas
Health	SANCO	Androulla Vassiliou
Development & Humanitarian Aid	DEV, AIDCO, ECHO	Louis Michel
Enlargement	ELARG	Olli Rehn
Employment, Social Affairs, & Equal Opportunities	EMPL	Vladimír Špidla
Taxation & Customs Union	TAXUD	László Kovács
Financial Programming & the Budget	BUDG, OLAF	Dalia Grybauskaitė
External Relations & European Neighbourhood Policy	RELEX	Benita Ferrero-Waldner
Education, Training & Culture	EAC	Ján Figeľ
Regional Policy	REGIO	Danuta Hübner
Energy	TREN	Andris Piebalgs
Science & Research	RTD, JRC	Janez Potočnik
Information Society & Media	INFSO	Viviane Reding
Consumer Protection	SANCO	Meglena Kuneva
Multilingualism	SCIC, DGT	Leonard Orban

Civil service

A Commissioner can come under a great deal of influence from the staff under their control. The European Civil Service is permanent whereas a Commissioner is in office usually for just 5 years. Hence it's the service which know the workings of the Commission and have longer term interests. Strong leadership from a Commissioner, who knows the workings of their portfolio, can overcome the power of the service. An example would be Pascal Lamy, however the best people are usually kept by their national governments leading to less solid candidates getting the job.

Politicisation

Commissioners are also required to remain above national politics while exercising their duties in the Commission in order to maintain independence. However that requirement has slowly been eroded as the institution has become more politicised. During the Prodi Commission, Anna Diamantopoulou (Employment and Social Affairs) took leave from the Commission to participate in the 2004 Greek elections and resigned when she won a seat despite her party losing. Romano Prodi campaigned in the 2001 Italian elections while still President.
Recently, Louis Michel (Development & Humanitarian Aid) has announced that he's to go on unpaid leave to take part in the 2007 Belgian elections. Although he's positioned himself so as not to be elected, the European Parliament's development committee asked the Parliament's legal service to assess if his participation violates the treaties. (External Link

)
Michel claimed that politicisation of this manner is part of reconnecting the Union with its citizens. The Commission revised its code of conduct for commissioners allowing them to; "be active members of political parties or trade unions." To participate in an election campaign they're required to "withdraw from the work of the commission for the duration of the campaign."
Politicisation has even gone so far as commissioners backing national candidates, with Neelie Kroes (Competition) backing Angela Merkel in the 2005 German elections and Margot Wallström (Institutional Relations & Communication Strategy) backing Ségolène Royal in the 2007 French elections. Wallström defended this claiming that the EU has to get more political and controversial as being a vital role in communicating the Commission. Wallström has been notable for engaging in debate and politics, she was the first commissioner to start her own blog

.
However their political nature can also cause problems in their habit of leaving the job early in the final years of the Commission to take up new national posts. In seeking to secure their post-Commission job, they can undermine the work of the Commission. Following elections in Cyprus, Commissioner Kyprianou has left to become Cypriot Foreign Minister. Likewise, Commissioner Frattini will be leaving to do the same following elections in Italy. During the previous Prodi Commission, Pedro Solbes left to become the Spanish finance minister, Michel Barnier left to become French foreign minister, Erkki Liikanen left to become head of a Helsinki bank and Anna Diamantopoulou also resigned early. Even President Prodi started campaigning in the Italian elections before his term as head of the Commission was over. Other ideas that have been floated are the creation of junior members for smaller states, the creation of "super-commissioners"

Further Information

Get more info on 'European Commissioner'.

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