New European Commissioners Announced Under Changed Structure

The structure of new European Commissioners and top officials was announced today, showing changes to the handling on intellectual property issues and many others.

The list of vice-presidents and commissioners-designate named by President-elect Jean Claude Juncker is available here. They are expected to take office on 1 November pending Parliament approval.

An explanation of the new Commission and what has changed is here.

The full structure is available here.

Key appointments include: Andrus Ansip (former prime minister of Estonia), Vice-President for the Digital Single Market; Günther Oettinger (Germany), Commissioner for Digital Economy & Society; Cecilia Malmström (Sweden), Trade; Vytenis Andriukaitis (Lithuania), Health & Food Safety; Elżbieta Bieńkowska (Poland), Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs; Margrethe Vestager (Denmark), Competition; and Carlos Moedas (Portugal), Research, Science and Innovation.

A brief explanation of their duties related to issue such as communications, content, technology, innovation, copyright, counterfeiting and others are included in this release. Intellectual Property Watch will follow with a more complete explanation going forward.

For instance, it states that changes for the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) – under Oettinger – include:

“- Unit MARKT D1 (Copyright), the part of Unit MARKT D3 (Fight against Counterfeiting and Piracy) dealing with copyright enforcement, and the part of unit MARKT E3 (Online and postal Services) dealing with online services moves from DG Internal Market and Services (MARKT) to DG CONNECT.

– Unit EAC E3 (Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA) moves from DG Education and Culture (EAC) to DG CONNECT.

– The part of Unit COMM A2 (Media Networks and Contracts) dealing with multimedia actions funded by budget line 16.03.01.01 (Euronews, Euranet, European Audiovisual Observatory) moves from DG Communication (COMM) to DG CONNECT.”

A Commission Commission release gives some explanation of changes from the last five-year Commission. It also says the selection of officials spreads across the 27 EU members and political parties, is relatively gender-balanced, and is younger yet highly experienced (such as numerous former prime ministers, deputy prime ministers and other highest posts.

Vision for Digital Single Market

Juncker’s “mission letter” to the Vice-President for a Digital Single Market lays out some of the vision for the future EU:

“Your objective is to make Europe a world leader in information and communication technology, with all the tools to succeed in the global digital economy and society,” it states. “We must make much better use of the opportunities offered by digital technologies which know no borders. By creating a connected digital single market, we can generate up to EUR 250 billion of additional growth in Europe in the course of the
mandate of the Commission, thereby creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs, notably for young job-
seekers, and a vibrant knowledge-based society.”

During our mandate, I would like you to focus on the following, in your role as Vice-President:

• Bringing together the different regulatory powers of the Commission to complete the Digital Single Market.

• Steering and coordinating, within the first six months of the mandate, ambitious legislative steps towards a connected Digital Single Market, notably by adding more ambition to the ongoing reform of our telecoms rules, modernising copyright rules in the light of the ongoing digital revolution – taking full account of Europe’s rich cultural diversity – and modernising and simplifying consumer rules for online and digital purchases. This should be based on a clear assessment of the main obstacles still to be removed and the formulation of a clear long-term strategy for the Digital Single Market. You should also oversee, during the first six months of the mandate, the conclusion of negotiations on the reform of Europe’s data protection rules as well as the review of the Safe Harbour arrangement with the U.S.

• Supporting the Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness in the project to present, within the first three months of our mandate, the jobs, growth and investment package announced in the Political Guidelines. The package should help to mobilise additional public and private investment for infrastructure such as broadband networks.

• Coordinating work on building the framework conditions that will allow all EU citizens to participate in and benefit from the digital economy, with the same freedoms and protections online as they have offline, including by working to fight cybercrime.

• Supporting the development of creative industries, helping Europe’s culture and audiovisual sectors to reach out to new audiences, adapt to the digital era and thrive in the connected Digital Single Market.

• Supporting ways to make public administration more open and effective by championing the digital and eGovernment approaches across all Member States and within the Commission, in cooperation with the Vice-President for Budget and Human Resources. You should also look at how to improve the interaction with Member States’ administrations, for example on reporting and exchanging information on systems needed to make the EU function, and facilitating cross-border interoperability between them.

Early Reaction

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which has offices in Brussels, issued an early reaction to the announcement.

“In his Political Guidelines Jean-Claude Juncker has correctly identified the need to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, and the key role that digital plays in this,” CCIA said. “Mr Ansip and Mr Oettinger, and the rest of the college of Commissioners, need to ensure Europe’s innovators and citizens get full benefit from the open, global Internet. This means putting in place the right conditions for startup companies and ensuring citizens continue to enjoy the widest access to information, products and services.”

“As 75% of the benefits of the Internet’s benefits accrue to traditional businesses it is vital for Europe’s whole economy that the digital opportunity is not impeded by vested interests with old business models, that prefer not to evolve and compete against new players and technologies,” the group said.

[Update:] Meanwhile, a group of leading European think tanks issued a report suggesting that the new Commission needs to work on developing better links between Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Development to tackle global crises such as conflict, the economy or climate change.