The future president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has presented his team of 24 commissioners on 12 August 2004, ten days ahead of schedule.
The future European Commission will comprise four vice-presidents : Margot Wallström of Sweden (Institutional relations and Communication strategy), Günter Verheugen of Germany (Enterprise and Industry), Frenchman Jacques Barrot (Transport), and Siim Kallas of Finland (Administrative affairs, Audit and Anti-fraud).
Trade will be headed by Dutchwoman Neelie Kroes while Peter mandelson of Britain will be in charge of trade.
New objectives
Some of the new aspects of the new team include a greater representation of women 8 of the future commissioners are women. Also, Mr. Barroso has decided to group all the commissioners' offices in the same building, the Berlaymont, in Brussels, to improve team spirit.
One of the objectives of the future Commission will be to bring Europe closer to the citizens. The low turn-over at the recent European elections is perceived as one of the reasons behind this objective. The president-designate has given Margot Wallström the brief to improve the Commission's communication strategy.
The Lisbon Agenda
Romano Prodi's successor's main priorities will be to make Europe the world's most competitive economy by 2010. Mr. Barroso will head and coordonate the group of commissioners involved with this objective.
Mr. Barroso has also made Equal opportunities one of his priorities. He has asked Vladimiri Spidla (Czech republic), the Employment and Social policy commissioner, to head a group that will focus on equal opportunities.
The group of future commissioners will hold a first informal meeting on 20 August in Brussels. It should take office on 1 November 2004, subject to a vote of approval by the European Parliament.
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