Although at one point it may have seemed that Malta would lose its nomination of Karmenu Vella as its next EU Commissioner after a wrangle developed over a lack of female nominations for the 28 EC posts, Malta now seems to have not only kept its nominee but Dr Vella appears also set to be given the fisheries and maritime affairs portfolio it had desired.

At one point last week there were widespread reports of horse trading between the Maltese government and the EC’s President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker, who had reportedly offered Malta the fisheries and maritime affairs portfolio in return for nominating a female commissioner instead of Dr Vella.

But, according to reports and while the list of Commission nominees will not be confirmed until next week, Malta appears to have had its way in both respects.

This week, President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker sent the list of Commissioners-designate to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in his capacity as President of the Council of the European Union.

The move followed a series of interviews Juncker held with each of the candidates for Commissioner.

The Council of the European Union will now have to agree in the list, after which the list will be published in the Official Journal of the EU. After that, Juncker intends to announce the distribution of portfolios and the way he intends to organise the work of the next European Commission.

According to the EC, “This is not expected until mid-next week.”

In a next step, the European Parliament has to give its consent to the entire College of Commissioners, including the President and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission. This will be preceded by hearings of the Commissioners-designate in the relevant parliamentary committees.

Former MP and Minister Dr Vella will apparently be given the same responsibilities that Malta’s first European Commissioner Joe Borg was given between 2004 and 2009.

The present incumbent is Tonio Borg, who is responsible for health and consumer policy. He replaced John Dalli who left the Commission under a very dark cloud indeed in October 2012 following an investigation by OLAF, the EU's antifraud office, into a complaint made by the tobacco producer Swedish Match.

 

Borg bids farewell

European Commissioner for Health Tonio Borg this week spoke at the European Public Health Alliance annual conference regarding the future of EU health policy and his hopes for the direction of the new European government.

Dr Borg gave a series of health care objectives he hopes the new European Commission led by Jean Claude Juncker will address. With the upcoming appointment and approval of a new European Health Commissioner, Dr Borg’s statements served as a form of swan song.

Dr Borg addressed the austerity in health care in many EU member nations by urging them to use the funds made available to them to invest in health care and medical infrastructure. Borg also said that the efforts to reduce use of tobacco and alcohol across Europe must continue to be emphasized, saying, “We have to fight everyday to fight consumption of tobacco, and the same goes for alcohol.”

Dr Borg added that the growing separation in the quality of health care among different regions of the EU should be a top priority and should affect the decision making behind economic, political and social policy.

“Today we can say that, in health matters, the EU is still not a union,” Dr Borg said. “Bridging health inequalities should be the overriding objective from 2014 to 2020.”

Dr Borg also called for an increase in “innovative approaches and multilateral strategies” to find the most efficient and effective way to reduce the health care inequality gap. He announced his plan to launch two new pilot projects to address and evaluate the health inequality gap, but did not speak on any details of the projects.

Dr Borg ended his statement by calling for cooperation between local, national and EU authorities and reiterated the importance of using the funds made available to EU member states and to give all European citizens access to quality health care. 

 

Proposed list of Commissioners-designate for the next Commission, in alphabetical order:

Vytenis Andriukaitis (Lithuania)

Andrus Ansip (Estonia)

Miguel Arias Cañete (Spain)

Dimitris Avramopoulos (Greece)

Elzbieta Bienkowska (Poland)

Alenka Bratušek (Slovenia)

Corina Cretu (Romania)

Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia)

Kristalina Georgieva (Bulgaria)

Johannes Hahn (Austria)

Jonathan Hill (United Kingdom)

Phil Hogan (Ireland)

Vera Jourová (Czech Republic)

Jyrki Katainen (Finland)

Cecilia Malmström (Sweden)

Neven Mimica (Croatia)

Carlos Moedas (Portugal)

Pierre Moscovici (France)

Tibor Navracsics (Hungary)

Günther Oettinger (Germany)

Maroš Šefcovic (Slovakia)

Christos Stylianides (Cyprus)

Marianne Thyssen (Belgium)

Frans Timmermans (Netherlands)

Karmenu Vella (Malta)

Margrethe Vestager (Denmark)

These are in addition to Federica Mogherini (Italy), appointed High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy by the European Council in agreement with President-elect Juncker.