Voluntary Report - public distribution

**Date:** 8/12/2004

**GAIN Report Number:** E34047

E34047

**EU-25**

**Agricultural Situation**

**Barroso unveils new European Commissioners**

**2004**

**Approved by:**

![](media/image1.wmf)Stan Cohen

U.S. Mission to the EU

**Prepared by:**

Peter Talks

**Report Highlights:**

The new President of the European Commission, Manuel Barroso has
announced how he will allocate portfolios in the new Commission.
Agriculture will be run by the Dane Mariann Fischer Boel, replacing
Franz Fischler. The new Commissioner for Fisheries will be Joe Borg.
Health and Consumer Protection, previously covered by David Byrne, will
be covered by the Cypriot Markos Kyprianou. The new Trade Commissioner,
replacing Lamy, will be the UK\'s Peter Mandelson.

The Commissioners will take office in November, assuming their
nominations are approved by the European Parliament and serve for a term
of five years.

Includes PSD Changes: No

Includes Trade Matrix: No

Unscheduled Report

Brussels USEU \[BE2\]

\[E3\]

The new Commission President Manuel Barroso today unveiled how he will
allocate portfolios amongst his team of 25 Commissioners.

The Agriculture and Fisheries portfolio currently held by Franz Fischler
will be split. Mariann Fischer Boel, currently Danish Minister of
Agriculture will cover agriculture and rural development. Joe Borg, from
Malta, will handle fisheries and maritime affairs. Joe Borg had
previously been the Maltese foreign minister. The portfolios have been
split due to the increase in Commissioners to 25 following EU
enlargement to ensure that each member State has a Commissioner.

The portfolio covered by David Byrne, Health and Consumer Protection has
been given to Markos Kyprianou from Cyprus, where he was previously the
finance minister.

The new Trade Commissioner, who replaces Pascal Lamy, will be Peter
Mandelson from the UK. Mandelson had previously been a minister twice in
the UK, including as minister for trade and industry before resigning
each time under allegations of misconduct.

Now that Barroso has indicated how he will allocate the Commission
portfolios, the new Commissioners will present themselves to the
European Parliament, probably in September. The European Parliament must
formally approve the team of Commissioners as a whole -- it cannot
reject individual Commissioners. The Commission President must also be
approved by a European Parliament vote. He was approved in late July by
a vote of 413 votes for, with 251 votes against.

The mandate of the new Commission will start on November 1, 2005 and
last for five years. The Treaty of Nice sets out that on the November 1,
2004, there will be 25 Commissioners, one from each country. In
addition, it should be noted that Member State voting weights will
change for Council votes. See [GAIN Report
E24022](http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200402/146105364.doc) for
further details.

Page three of this report tables the full list of new Commissioners.

**Visit our website:** our website
**[www.useu.be/agri/usda.html]{.underline}** provides a broad range of
useful information on EU import rules and food laws and allows easy
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**Related reports from USEU Brussels:**

  ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------
  **Report Number**                                            **Title**                                                             **Date Released**

  E34044                                                       [CAP Reform 2003 - Deconstructing                                     8/11/2004
                                                               Decoupling](http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200408/146107107.doc)   

  E34028                                                       [Agriculture Talks End For Romania and                                7/1/2004
                                                               Bulgaria](http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200406/146106691.doc)     

  E34004                                                       [Enlargement of the Common Agricultural                               5/03/2004
                                                               Policy](http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200404/146106177.doc)       

  E24022                                                       [EU Key                                                               2/04/2004
                                                               Dates](http://www.fas.usda.gov/gainfiles/200402/146105364.doc)        

  These reports can be accessed through our website                                                                                  
  [www.useu.be/agri](http://www.useu.be/agri) or through the                                                                         
  FAS website                                                                                                                        
  <http://www.fas.usda.gov/scriptsw/attacherep/default.asp>.                                                                         
  ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------

###### The New Commission's Portfolios 

+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| ####### Portfolio                  | **New            | **Country** |
|                                    | Commissioner**   |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| President                          | Jose Manuel      | Portugal    |
|                                    | Barroso          |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Vice President                     | Guenter          | Germany     |
|                                    | Verheugen        |             |
| Enterprise and Industry            |                  |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Vice President                     | Margot Wallström | Sweden      |
|                                    |                  |             |
| Institutional relations and        |                  |             |
| Communication Strategy             |                  |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Vice President                     | Siim Kallas      | Estonia     |
|                                    |                  |             |
| Administrative Affairs, Audit and  |                  |             |
| Anti-Fraud                         |                  |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Vice President                     | Jacques Barrot   | France      |
|                                    |                  |             |
| Transport                          |                  |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Vice President                     | Rocco            | Italy       |
|                                    | Buttiglione      |             |
| Justice, Freedom and Security      |                  |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Information Society and Media      | Viviane Reding   | Luxembourg  |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Environment                        | Stavros Dimas    | Greece      |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Economic and Monetary Affairs      | Joaquin Almunia  | Spain       |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Regional Policy                    | Danuta Hübner    | Poland      |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Fisheries and Maritime Affairs     | Joe Borg         | Malta       |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Financial Programming              | Dalia            | Lithuania   |
|                                    | Grybauskaite     |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Science and Research               | Janez Potocnik   | Slovenia    |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Education, Training, Culture and   | Jan Figel        | Slovak      |
| 'Multilinguism' (sic.)             |                  | Republic    |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Health and Consumer Protection     | Markos Kyprianou | Cyprus      |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Agriculture                        | Mariann Fischer  | Denmark     |
|                                    | Boel             |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Enlargement                        | Olli Rehn        | Finland     |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Development and Humanitarian Aid   | Louis Michel     | Belgium     |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Energy                             | Laszlo Kovacs    | Hungary     |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Competition                        | Neelie           | Netherlands |
|                                    | Kroes-Smit       |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| External Relations and European    | Benita           | Austria     |
| Neighbourhood Policy               | Ferrero-Waldner  |             |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Internal Market and Services       | Charlie McCreevy | Ireland     |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Employment, Social Affairs and     | Vladimir Spidla  | Czech       |
| Equal Opportunities                |                  | Republic    |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+
| Taxation and Customs Union         | Ingrida Udre     | Latvia      |
+------------------------------------+------------------+-------------+

Source: European Commission,
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/04/1030&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en