Ursula von der Leyen announced her nominees for the new European Commission at a press conference on 17 September.
Von der Leyen said she managed to increase the number of women in the lineup compared to member states’ original proposals, noting that she chose to nominate women for four of the six executive vice president roles.
Moreover, she proposes reducing the command layers to executive vice presidents and commissioners. The previous third layer of vice presidents will be dropped to ensure a leaner structure and favour collaboration among commissioners.
All nominees must now appear for hearings before European parliament committees before the European parliament votes on whether to approve the entire commission.
Startups, Research and Innovation portfolio
Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria) is Von der Leyen’s Commissioner-designate for Startups, Research and Innovation.
She is a Bulgarian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2017 to 2021 and twice from 2013 to 2014. A member of the GERB (EPP) party, she also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2021, Minister of Justice from 2015 to 2017, and Minister of Regional Development twice from 2013 to 2014.
Ursula von der Leyen has published the mission letter for Commissioner-delegate Zaharieva (PDF, 1.5 MB), outlining her priorities for research and innovation for 2024-2029.
UKRO has published a brief analysis of the mission letter to help its subscribers understand what to expect from the new Commissioner.
List of nominees
Here are the key roles Ursula von der Leyen announced for the new European Commission.
She has named six executive vice presidents:
- Teresa Ribera (Spain): Clean, Just and Competitive Transition
- Henna Virkkunen (Finland): Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
- Stéphane Séjourné (France): Prosperity and Industrial Strategy
- Kaja Kallas (Estonia): High Representative for Foreign Affairs
- Roxana Mînzatu (Romania): People, Skills and Preparedness
- Raffaele Fitto (Italy): Cohesion and Reforms
Below is the complete list of nominees for the role of commissioner:
- Magnus Brunner (Austria): Internal Affairs and Migration
- Hadja Lahbib (Belgium): Preparedness, Crisis Management. Equality
- Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria): Startups, Research and Innovation
- Dubravka Šuica (Croatia): Mediterranean
- Costas Kadis (Cyprus): Fisheries and Oceans
- Jozef Síkela (Czech Republic): International Partnerships
- Dan Jørgensen (Denmark): Energy and Housing
- Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Greece): Sustainable Transport and Tourism
- Olivér Várhelyi (Hungary): Health and Animal Welfare
- Michael McGrath (Ireland): Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law
- Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia): Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification
- Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania): Defence and Space
- Christophe Hansen (Luxembourg): Agriculture and Food
- Glenn Micallef (Malta): Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport
- Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands): Climate, Net-Zero and Clean Growth
- Piotr Serafin (Poland): Budget, Anti-fraud, Public Administrations
- Maria Luís Albuquerque (Portugal): Financial Services
- Maroš Šefčovič (Slovakia): Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency
- Marta Kos (Slovenia): Enlargement
- Jessika Roswall (Sweden): Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy
Impact on the main Horizon Europe Work Programme for 2025
The remainder of the main Work Programme for 2025 (addressing EU political priorities) will be developed during 2024 and published in early 2025. This does not include the ERC or the EIC, which have separate annual Work Programmes.