The Green Deal’s new Commissioners

This week, the European Parliament confirmed two Commissioners, the Netherlands’ appointee Wopke Hoekstra, and long-standing Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič , as the replacements on the Green Deal. Following Frans Timmermans ’ departure from the European Commission back in August, the role of Green Deal Chief has been open. Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen , tapped Maroš Šefčovič to take over shortly after Timmermans’ departure, while the Netherlands, as their own replacement to Timmermans, nominated Wopke Hoekstra as Commissioner-designate.

Both have been tasked with responsibilities from the Green Deal – Sefcovic, being crowned Executive Vice President (EVP) for the European Green Deal, was handed the implementation of 2030 and 2040 objectives and the Biodiversity Strategy, while Hoekstra as Climate Action Commissioner has been given the climate-related aspects of the Deal. Before that, though, they still had to go through a grilling in the European Parliament for MEPs to give their opinion on how suited the two are for their jobs. With those grillings having taken place earlier this week in the form of hearings on Monday and Tuesday, the Parliaments Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) gave their go-ahead on the nominees Wednesday, which was then formally approved by the Parliament in a plenary vote yesterday.

These appointments are important. First, they highlight the churn in Brussels that will characterise the coming months as European elections draw nearer. Timmermans’ departure to take up national politics back in the Netherlands was the first hint of that and was shortly followed thereafter by the leave taken by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager to run for European Investment Bank (EIB) boss. What this means is that legislation is being pushed to the back burner, but there is still a lot of it on the table that needs wrapping up before the final plenary of this Parliament. Therefore, what these appointees said during their hearings this week is an important indicator of what is to come in the next six months. Here’s the breakdown.

A very green conservative

The more fraught of the two, Wopke Hoekstra, a European People's Party (EPP) aligned Dutch politician was nominated by the caretaker government in the Netherlands to take Timmermans’ spot – an S&D-aligned Commissioner – as he himself returned to the Netherlands to run in national elections this autumn. This nomination had been met with frustration among the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament , as well as other left-leaning European parties, as they saw the important climate role that Timmermans held and championed as a crucial one that was being threatened by an EPP-aligned candidate. This comes after months of distrust due to the EPP’s attempts to water down climate legislation and block the Nature Restoration Regulation back in July. It is therefore no surprise that Hoekstra faced an uphill battle going into his hearing this week.

During that hearing, Hoekstra faced a barrage of questions from left-leaning MEPs on his green merits. A point of contention was his prior work with oil major Shell , as well as what many of his examiners called a lack of relevant experience in climate policy. To combat this, Hoekstra leaned into the green pressure, putting on a show that he hoped would lend him credence for the job. Despite this, MEPs were not convinced. Among his own party, they thought he went too far in bowing to green demands, while the other parties believed it to be a façade and challenged his lack of specifics. Instead of issuing their opinion on him following the hearing, the ENVI Committee had him (as well as Šefčovič) submit more written answers on their concrete plans for the Green Deal. It was only after seeing these answers that two-thirds of the Committee was convinced to give him the go-ahead for a plenary vote, which passed yesterday 279 in favour, 173 against and 33 abstentions.

The Chief

Meanwhile, Maroš Šefčovič also won the support of the Parliament in the vote yesterday with 322 votes in favour, 158 against and 37 abstentions. Being aligned with the S&D, the EPP group in a bit of a retaliation to the left for holding up their Commission candidate, gave him quite a hard time during his hearing. Much focus was put on the recent Slovakian election – Šefčovič’s home country – and how pro-Russian Robert Fico’s likely path to leadership might impact Šefčovič’s priorities. The EPP grilled Šefčovič about his allegiance to the EU and its Green Deal objectives, especially the double-downed REPowerEU ones that would see Europe end its reliance on Russia for energy. He was also grilled by centrists and greens alike on the specifics of his Green Deal plans, which the Committee concluded were lacking during the hearing. This is where his written responses come in and things get interesting.

Following his hearing on Tuesday morning, the ENVI Committee gave him and Hoekstra until 07:00 on Wednesday morning to provide written answers to follow-up questions before they made a decision on their nomination. One question, in particular, stood out for the electricity sector on what Šefčovič’s specific plans for the Green Deal were. In his response, Šefčovič highlighted that beyond the Wind Power package and Clean Transition Dialogues promised by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union (SOTEU) address last month, there would also be an EU offshore energy strategy later this month, and an action plan on grids roll-out coming in November. Having championed such a plan on grids for some time now and following the missed opportunity during the SOTEU, this written commitment to add grids to the Green Deal agenda is a serious boon for our sector.

Coming up

The road to the next EU elections is well underway and there is no guarantee that the two new Commissioners will be around for when the dust settles on that. What is clear is that getting the Green Deal across the finish line before then is crucial and hence why such focus has been put by MEPs on the concrete plans of the Commission. For us, we look forward to all the implementation-oriented plans of EVP Šefčovič – the Clean Transition Dialogues, the Wind Power package, the EU offshore energy strategy and especially the grid's action plan. On that last point, we are already well aware of what needs to be included. Early last month we launched a report on the grid’s capacity needs, and next week we will be taking part in a joint event alongside SolarPower Europe , hosted by Maria Da Graça Carvalho at the European Parliament on how to connect hundreds of gigawatts of solar to an already congested grid. The action plan is indeed timely, and we look forward to working with the Commission to get started on it as soon as possible.

This week's edition written by:

Nicholas A. Steinwand, Strategic Communications Officer - Eurelectric

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