How to make sense of Brussels’ new tangled commission web

Good morning. A scoop to start out: The EU’s outgoing competitors chief Margrethe Vestager has warned an overhaul of the bloc’s merger guidelines would open a “Pandora’s box”, in a sideswipe at plans for her newly-announced successor to rethink the bloc’s antitrust rules.

At present, the EU’s Dutch commissioner provides us his tackle the new-look fee introduced yesterday, and our Berlin workforce stories on Friedrich Merz lastly saying his bid to be the subsequent German chancellor.

Spider’s net

Linking up, going hand-in-hand: that’s the key change within the new European Fee introduced yesterday, in keeping with the (re)minted Dutch commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, write Alice Hancock and Andy Bounds.

Context: Ursula von der Leyen announced the names and portfolios of her new commissioners yesterday, lining up six govt vice-presidents overseeing 20 commissioners — many with overlapping duties. Our mates at Politico have made a handy chart.

Hoekstra, a member of von der Leyen’s centre-right European Folks’s social gathering, has proved himself a loyal foot soldier for the European Fee president. He was rewarded with a second time period as local weather, web zero and clear progress commissioner.

The previous Dutch finance minister, who may even have duty for taxation, will report to 2 govt vice-presidents, the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera accountable for competitiveness and the French liberal Stéphane Séjourné, who will head up industrial coverage.

The tangle of political allegiances shouldn’t be an issue, Hoekstra stated: “I come from a rustic the place working collectively throughout social gathering traces is crucial.”

“My view has all the time been that our job is to repair the big issues for Europeans, they usually don’t care in any respect about small politics and the issues sadly we preoccupy ourselves with an excessive amount of. They care about supply.”

Meaning intertwining local weather coverage “way more firmly along with the entire area of the financial system, trade, innovation [and] tax”, Hoekstra stated. “That’s the step change, that’s the watershed component within the strategy of this fee.”

However which means a number of commissioners have multiple boss, and coverage areas similar to sustainability are cut up amongst varied fiefdoms.

“It’s extra sophisticated within the sense that you’ve got lots of cross-links . . . but it surely truly displays the fact that we have to have insurance policies which are total co-ordinated,” a senior fee official stated.

Extra sceptical observers famous that the overlaps have been to von der Leyen’s benefit, provided that they strengthen her function as the last word resolution maker.

One EU diplomat famous that whereas she had given huge European nations vice-president posts, she had put in “loyal henchmen” similar to Hoekstra underneath them to supervise the “meaty bits” of coverage implementation.

Chart du jour: Cold and warm

Though air con accounts for 4 per cent of greenhouse fuel emissions, shoppers are more and more opting for it, writes Lex.

Worthy opponents

When Friedrich Merz lastly introduced he was running as the centre-right chancellor candidate in Germany’s nationwide election subsequent yr, Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats breathed a sigh of reduction, write Guy Chazan and Gideon Rachman.

Context: The SPD, which is presently polling at simply 15 per cent, method behind Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) on 33 per cent, has little chance of winning the Bundestag election scheduled for September subsequent yr. However many within the social gathering are satisfied that if it involves a duel between Merz and the incumbent, Scholz will prevail.

“Merz has no authorities expertise in any respect,” stated Nils Schmid, the SPD’s overseas affairs spokesman. “And he’s additionally obtained a really brief fuse. I’m positive we will beat him.”

The large concern amongst Social Democrats had been that it wouldn’t be Merz operating because the centre-right’s candidate for chancellor however Hendrik Wüst, prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. However he introduced earlier this week that he wouldn’t be operating.

“Wüst would have been much more difficult for us,” stated Johannes Fechner, a senior SPD MP. Wüst is seen as a centrist desirous about social points — “not like Merz, a pro-business technocrat who simply desires to shrink the welfare state”.

Certainly, since taking the helm of the CDU in 2022, Merz has worked hard to maneuver it in a extra conservative, business-friendly route, away from the fuzzy liberalism of Angela Merkel, who received an influence wrestle towards him within the early 2000s and went on to rule Germany as chancellor from 2005-21.

However Merz’s critics suppose he has gone too far. “He runs the danger of dropping a few of the Merkel voters,” stated Schmid.

Merz additionally polls badly amongst younger folks and girls, a lot of whom see him as a Nineties man. “The subsequent election shall be about shaping the long run with Olaf Scholz, or going again to the previous with Friedrich Merz,” stated Dirk Wiese, one other senior SPD MP.

What to look at at this time

1. European parliament debates floods, organised crime, Hungarian visa scheme and mpox.

2. Inaugural session of Turkish-Swedish ministerial safety talks in Ankara.

Now learn these