European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has outlined the roles she wants her new college of commissioners will take for the next five years.

These Commissioner-designates must pass checks on their financial interests and questioning from their respective committees in the European Parliament before the entire lineup is put to a vote of all MEPs over the coming weeks.

The portfolios and roles outlined are dependent on these candidates surviving this process.

While some indication on each new commissioner’s responsibility can be drawn from their job title and the mission letter sent to each by the Commission president, it is still unclear which proposals or files each will take charge of until concrete proposals begin to take shape.

For example, the last Commission saw proposals for a new pesticide regulation fell under the remit of the health and food safety commissioner, while rules targeting pollution from large farms and the new Nature Restoration Law were both handed to the environment commissioner.

Luxembourg gets agriculture

Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen.
Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen, a freshly re-elected MEP, was appointed Commissioner for Agriculture and Food. He is a cousin of Luxembourg’s minister for agriculture and has spent the bulk of his career in politics at various levels.

A key task handed to the incoming agriculture commissioner is to “bring to life the report and recommendations of the strategic dialogue” published on foot of discussions between agri-food stakeholders ranging from Greenpeace to the EU umbrella group for farming organisations, Copa, over recent months.

This report called for a targeting of CAP funds to those “who need it most”, namely small farmers, young farmers, mixed farms and those farming in areas of natural constraint.

Hansen will unveil a “future vision” for EU agriculture that will set the backdrop for CAP changes post-2027 within his first 100 days in the job.

He has also been tasked with outlining a means of further safeguarding farmers from unfair trading practices along the supply chain, with von der Leyen looking for solutions to farmers having to “systematically sell their products below production costs”.

Climate and net zero

Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth Wopke Hoekstra. \ EC - Audiovisual Service
Dutch nominee Wopke Hoekstra received the title of Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth, having held the equivalent climate action post in the last commission from 2023 when Green Deal heavyweight Frans Timmermans stepped aside.

Previous to this, Hoekstra spent over a decade in management consulting firm McKinsey & Company before entering politics in his native Netherlands in 2011, rising to finance minister in 2017 and deputy prime minister five years’ later.

Hoekstra will be keeping member states in-line with their legally binding 2030 emissions reduction targets, as well as concreting 2040’s target of cutting emissions by 90% in EU law.

Environment and water

Commissioner for Environment and Water Resilience Jessika Roswall. \ EC - Audiovisual Service
Sweden’s Jessika Roswall secured the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resilience role, switching from her job as EU affairs minister and with previous experience as a lawyer and a member of the Swedish parliament.

Roswall has responsibility for ensuring the Green Deal stays on track and that existing environmental regulations are upheld across member states, with the new Nature Restoration Law among this legislation.

Water quality and the retention of Ireland’s nitrates derogation will come under the remit of this portfolio, with a new European water resilience strategy focused on water scarcity and pollution in the works for the coming years.

The last Commission pledged to assess how to address emissions and pollution from large cattle farms. It is likely that Roswall will be the commissioner responsible for this ahead of the 2026 deadline scheduled for this review.

Human health and animal welfare

Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Olivér Várhelyi. \ EC - Audiovisual Service
Hungary’s appointment, Olivér Várhelyi, is Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare having been the Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement in the previous Commission.

He is legally trained, having spent his career in various senior roles representing Hungary in the EU.

Von der Leyen has landed a modernising of EU animal welfare rules, food waste reduction and food safety, sustainability and affordability on Várhelyi’s desk, with a specific mention of organic production.

However, while important to agriculture, these issues are unlikely to be the primary focus of the commissioner in charge of regulating pharmaceuticals and extending the EU’s smoking ban to cover more public areas, as well as to vapes.

Trade

Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic. \ EC - Audiovisual Service

Slovakian Maros Sefcovic has returned to a new Commission for his fourth time since 2009, this time as Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security.

Sefcovic is tasked with getting any EU free trade agreements still in the works across the line including the EU-Mercosur deal, while ensuring that the terms attached to agreements currently in place are upheld by exporters to the EU.

Managing trade relations with China, which has EU dairy exports in its crosshairs, will be another key responsibility of the incoming trade commissioner, as will post-Brexit relations with the UK.

A larger EU

Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos.
Slovenia’s Marta Kos takes over as Commissioner for Enlargement, coming from a background of radio broadcasting, public affairs and diplomacy.

She is responsible for taking candidate member states in-line with the EU’s rule of law and integrating these candidate countries into elements of the single market.

The recovery of Ukraine and a possible start to accession negotiations with the agricultural powerhouse, even though it has been signalled that full entry into EU remains a long way off, will be high on Kos’s enlargement agenda.

At a glance

  • Some 14 members come from the centre-right EPP grouping with which Fine Gael is aligned and another five from the Renew group to which Fianna Fáil is aligned.
  • Ireland’s appointee is Fianna Fáil’s former finance minister Micheal McGrath, who has been appointed Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law.
  • Its first 100 days will lay the foundation not only for the post-2027 CAP, but for the EU’s “future vision” for agriculture.