page_title: Paolo Gentiloni
section_title: European Commissioner for Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Paolo Gentiloni / After the premiership / European Commissioner for Economy
caption_attribution_description: Before the European Parliament can vote the new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen into office, parliamentary committees will assess the suitability of commissioners-designate. On 23-26 May, more than 200,000,000 people in 28 EU countries went to the polls to elect members of the European Parliament, giving them a strong democratic mandate, including voting into office the new European Commission and examining the competencies and abilities of its commissioners-designate. Elected members of the European Parliament will also listen to their ideas and will assess their willingness to take concrete actions on the issues that Europeans care about. Each candidate commissioner is invited for a live-streamed, three-hour hearing in front of the committee or committees responsible for their proposed portfolio. The hearings will take place between Monday 30 September and Tuesday 8 October. &lt;a href="http://epinsta.eu/EPhearings2019" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;epinsta.eu/EPhearings2019&lt;/a&gt; This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: &quot;CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2019 – Source: EP&quot;. (&lt;a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&lt;/a&gt;) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu
context_page_description: Paolo Gentiloni Silveri is an Italian politician serving as European Commissioner for Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since 1 December 2019. He previously was the 57th prime minister of Italy from 2016 to 2018.
  Gentiloni is a founding member of the Democratic Party, of which he became President in March 2019. Gentiloni served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 31 October 2014 until December 2016, when President Sergio Mattarella appointed him as Prime Minister. Previously, he was Minister of Communications from 2006 to 2008, during the second government of Romano Prodi.
  Despite being considered a caretaker Prime Minister at the beginning of his term, during his year and a half tenure, Gentiloni promoted the implementation and the approval of several reforms like the advance healthcare directive and a new electoral law. His government also introduced more severe and stricter rules regarding immigration to Italy and social security, to counteract the European migration crisis.
context_section_description: In August 2019 tensions grew within the populist government, leading to the issuing of a motion of no-confidence on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte by the League. After Conte's resignation, the national board of the PD officially opened to the possibility of forming a new cabinet in a coalition with the M5S, based on pro-Europeanism, green economy, sustainable development, fight against economic inequality and a new immigration policy. The party also accepted that Conte may continue at the head of a new government, and on 29 August President Sergio Mattarella formally invested Conte to do so. On 5 September 2019 the new government sworn in and, on the same day, during the first Council of Ministers, Gentiloni was proposed as the Italian-backed European Commissioner in the Von der Leyen Commission. On 10 September, von der Leyen proposed Gentiloni as new Commissioner for Economy.
  On 3 October, the EP's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs approved Gentiloni's nomination as new Economic Affairs Commissioner. On 28 November, Gentiloni announced his resignation as member of the Chamber of Deputies, after almost 19 years of service. The resignation became effective on 2 December. During his final speech, he stated: "I make a solemn commitment to hold together the national and European interests. I am an Italian man in love with Italy, I am a patriot and I will try to make it clear that the best way to protect the national interest is to do so in the European dimension." Three days later, on 1 December, he started his new political office within the European Commission.
  In early March 2020, Gentiloni was appointed by President von der Leyen to serve on the Commission's special task force to coordinate the European Union's response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, which severely affected Europe.
caption: Gentiloni before the European Parliament as candidate for Commissioner for Economy.
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