Nominees for new EU Commission make economic interventionism seem more likely

AFTER June’s European Parliament elections, the process of forming the next European Commission – the executive body of the European Union – moved at a glacial pace. On Tuesday (Sep 17), President Ursula von der Leyen finally proposed her top team in Brussels for the half-decade ahead – with big implications, including for economic policy.

She has tried to balance factors such as gender, political leanings, and geography – one commissioner per member state – while putting her stamp on the team more markedly than on her first commission in 2019.

This includes the ruthless removal of Frenchman Thierry Breton, a key architect of the EU’s new Artificial Intelligence Act, who was perhaps her strongest critic in the outgoing college of commissioners.