About a dozen of the proposed members of the von der Leyen College of Commissioners will oversee a portfolio related to education, research and innovation.
When President-elect Ursula von der Leyen presented her College of Commissioners on 10 September, she described the new European Commission (EC) as a “geopolitical Commission”, alluding to Europe’s aspiration for global leadership that she envisions in her agenda for Europe. However, the main topics of her agenda, such as “Europe fit for the Digital Age”, a “European Green Deal”, and “An Economy that Works for People” will all have to strongly rely on education, research and innovation (ERI) in order to succeed. ERI will therefore take centre stage in those efforts. Von der Leyen chooses a mission-like approach for her Commission, putting three Executive Vice-Presidents in charge of her main priorities and additional Vice-Presidents for a further set of important objectives. Thus, even though the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and the Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG-EAC) will, according to von der Leyen’s plans, fall under the leadership of only one Commissioner, several other Commissioners will also cover important ERI-related topics.
Current Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, is von der Leyen’s Commissioner-designate for Innovation and Youth. She will be in charge of DG RTD and DG EAC as well as administratively responsible for the Joint Research Centre. Von der Leyen mentions in her Mission letter to Mariya Gabriel how important ERI will be for her overall agenda. “Education, research and innovation will be key to our competitiveness and our ability to lead in the transition to a climate-neutral economy and new digital age.” The Mission letter also delineates how Gabriel’s ERI portfolio will relate to the greater picture and mentions her collaboration with Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager on all things digital and Vice-President Margaritis Schinas on education. “As a rule, you will work under the guidance of the Executive Vice-President for a ‘Europe fit for the Digital Age’ in matters relating to research and innovation, and the Vice-President for ‘Protecting our European Way of Life’ in matters relating to education, culture, youth and sports.”
However, the presented College of Commissioners includes many more links in the ERI field than one might guess after reading Gabriel’s Mission letter. This is best illustrated by a closer look at the three Executive Vice-Presidents’ portfolios. They are in charge of the big challenges of our time and therefore of far-reaching portfolios: Tackling climate change, managing the digital transformation and including everyone in a strong economy. It is easy to imagine that there will be many more connections necessary in the future to coordinate this work from an ERI point of view, than the ones that are formally mentioned in von der Leyen’s Mission letter to Gabriel. This becomes evident when analysing the Mission letters of the Executive Vice-Presidents and the relevant Vice-President.
Margrethe Vestager will remain in charge of ‘Competition’, her current role in the Juncker Commission. In addition, however, the Executive Vice-President-designate will also chair the Commissioners’ Group on a ‘Europe fit for the Digital Age’, which will include the Commissioners-designate Gabriel and Sylvie Goulard (Internal Market). The latter will be strongly involved in creating a circular economy and supporting the digital transformation. Furthermore, Goulard will also cover defence industry and space. Vestager’s work will include a vast portfolio, pushing the digital transformation in the EU and trying to catch up with the United States and China. Von der Leyen emphasizes in her Mission letter to Vestager that “You should maximise the contribution of investment in research and innovation in supporting our policy objectives.” In this task, Vestager will also work closely with Executive Vice-President-designate Valdis Dombrovskis, who is in charge of an ‘Economy that Works for People’, on improving Europe’s competitiveness and technological leadership, while making sure that social fairness and prosperity go hand in hand. To use von der Leyen’s words, the goal will be nothing less than “redesigning our industry and economy in line with societal, environmental and technological changes.”
Dombrovskis will be tasked to include the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in his policies and to turn parts of the European Investment Bank into a European climate bank. He will also be in charge of improving SMEs’ access to finance and to put forward a FinTech Strategy to support new digital technologies in the EU’s financial system. Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who will also be von der Leyen’s deputy, will lead the efforts for a “European Green Deal”. Achieving the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 requires a circular economy, and therefore innovation, which in turn is based on education and research. He will also be responsible for the EU’s 2030 biodiversity strategy, which includes creating a relevant knowledge base.
Vice-President-designate for ‘Protecting our European Way of Life’, Margaritis Schinas, will – according to von der Leyen’s Mission letter – “coordinate the work on an ambitious education agenda, focusing on making education more accessible and inclusive, on lifelong learning and on cross-border learning. You will coordinate the work on making the European Education Area a reality.” He will be in charge of making sure the people in Europe have the skills needed to preserve Europe’s competitiveness. Schinas will guide the work of Gabriel and draw upon the contribution of the Commissioner-designate for Jobs, Nicolas Schmit, “to identify and fill skills shortages and support reskilling”. Schmit will be in charge of vocational education and training and will lead the work on implementing and updating the skills agenda.
Commissioner-designate Paolo Gentiloni (Economy) will play an important role in both key undertakings, climate-neutrality and digital transformation. He will be in charge of launching the future InvestEU programme that should support those goals. The Commissioner-designate for Energy, Kadri Simson, will also be responsible for a crucial contribution to Europe becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050: Clean energy. It goes without saying that this work will have to rely heavily on research and innovation, as also von der Leyen is pointing out in her Mission letter: “research and innovation are key to achieving these aims.”
Commissioner-designate Virginijus Sinkevičius will be responsible for Environment and Oceans and for designing a new Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. He will also play an important part in von der Leyen’s economic agenda: “I want you to lead the work on a new Circular Economy Action Plan to ensure sustainable resource use, notably in resource-intensive and high-impact sectors. This should support and feed into the new industrial strategy.” Finally, also Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner-designate for Budget and Administration – and a former Austrian minister of science and research, will play an important role when it comes to funding education, research and innovation. He will report directly to von der Leyen and will support her in concluding the negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework.
However, the portfolios and titles of the designated Commissioners may still change. The entire college of Commissioners is up for hearings with the respective committees of the European Parliament in the first two weeks of October. The committees will challenge them with a set of tough questions to thoroughly check their competencies in the dossiers they have been trusted with.