Which Commissioners-designate will work for social justice?

Last week, President-elect Juncker announced the allocation of the different portfolios in the new European Commission. Social Platform is paying particular attention to the following Vice-Presidents and Commissioners-designate.

We welcome Frans Timmermans, the first Vice-President and Commissioner-designate in charge of Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, the Rule of Law & the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Mr Timmermans will guide the work of the Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality and the Commissioner for Migration & Home Affairs. He will be responsible for ensuring that every Commission proposal or initiative complies with the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and for concluding the process of accession of the EU to the UN Convention for Human Right (UNCHR). It remains to be seen whether Mr Timmermans also will commit to an EU internal human rights strategy, as we are calling for.

Věra Jourová, the Commissioner-designate for Justice, Consumers & Gender Equality, will support the Vice-President in the EU's accession to the UNCHR. Ms Jourová will be responsible for fighting anti-discrimination and promoting gender equality, and we welcome in particular her commitment to ‘exploring how to unblock negotiations of the Commission proposal for the Horizontal Anti-Discrimination Directive’. Closing the gaps in legal protection is a key priority for us, and we would also like Ms Jourová to commit to presenting a proposal to the European Council to combat hate crime and bias violence on all grounds of discrimination, by means of criminal law.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Commissioner-designate for Migration & Home Affairs, is mainly in charge of issues of irregular migration, cross-border crime and terrorism; it will therefore be important to ensure that his actions do not ‘compromise our commitment to fundamental rights and values’. In cooperation with the Commmissioner-designate for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills & Labour Mobilitly, we encourage Mr Avramopoulos to develop a new European policy on regular migration. Unfortunately, the portfolio does not include our main concerns regarding the human rights of migrants in the EU.

Marianne Thyssen will be responsible for the Employment, Social Affairs, Skills & Labour Mobility portfolio. She will be in charge of the relevant aspects of the European Semester, and will work towards achieving the employment and poverty targets of Europe 2020. The President-elect asks her to ensure that employment and social considerations are given appropriate attention in all Commission proposals and activities.

The job-description of Pierre Moscovici, who will be taking up Economic & Financial Affairs, Taxation & Customs portfolio, is explicitely linked to that of Ms Thyssen. His main responsibility will be the creation of a sound macro-economic environment conducive to the creation of jobs, among other things, and he is encouraged to work on reforms concerning shifting the tax burden away from labour.

If the Juncker team is approved, both the Commissioners for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills & Labour Mobilitly and for Economic & Financial Affairs, Taxation & Customs will be guided by Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, for work on the European Semester and reform of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This also concerns the social dimension of the EMU, and the responsibility of the Employment, Social Affairs, Skills & Labour Mobilitly Commissioner to develop social impact assessments on any future conditional stability support programmes.

Mr Moscovici and Ms Thyssen will also be supervised by the future Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment & Competitiveness, a task for which Jyrki Katainen was selected. In the first three months of his mandate he has been asked to deliver a jobs, growth and investment package. Furthermore, he will be responsible for the coordination of the mid-term review of the Europe 2020 Strategy, and must help to ensure progress on its targets.

Elżbieta Bieńkowska, the Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs, will also contribute to projects steered and coordinated by both Mr Katainen and Mr Dombrovskis. In the renewed strategy for completing the internal market for goods and services, we would appreciate the new Commissioner including policy actions to support the development of social economy and social enterprises, in continuation with the Social Business Initiative. A strategy to complete the internal market must also include a social dimension, to ensure that all people living in Europe – particularly those most in need – can benefit from it and are not left by the wayside.

Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Trade, will also work closely with Mr Katainen. Ms Malmström's mandate foresees her working towards a reasonable and balanced Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US, which she must ensure protects Europe’s safety, health, social and data protection standards. She will also enhance transparency towards citizens and the European Parliament during all steps of the negotiations; therefore we hope that our demand to exclude social and health services and education from the scope of this agreement can be met.

If confirmed by the Parliament, we have high expectations of the new Commission, and we will continue to fight for a future EU policy agenda that brings social justice and well-being for all.