Hearings of Commissioners-designate 2024

The confirmation hearings for the 26 people who have been nominated by EU member states to serve in the next College of Commissioners (Commissioners-designate) took place 5-12 November in Brussels.

The 26 Commissioners-designate, who were assigned their prospective portfolios by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 17 September 2024, have all appeared before the respective European Parliament (EP) committee(s) that oversee their policy areas. The objective of the hearings is for the EP to assess whether or not each Commissioner-designate is suitable for the post to which they have been assigned.

Here follows a short overview of the hearings of the two Commissioners-designate who will be most relevant for the EU’s policies in the areas of migration and asylum in the period 2024-2029.

 

Magnus Brunner – Commissioner-designate for Internal Affairs and Migration  

Magnus Brunner is the Austrian Federal Minister for Finance, a post he has held since December 2021. Prior to this he was State Secretary in the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. He studied law at the University of Innsbruck, the University of Vienna and King’s College London.

According to the mission letter that he received from Ursula von der Leyen, Brunner will be responsible, inter alia, for the following policy areas:

• “Stronger common borders”
  • Promoting integrated border management and overseeing the strengthening of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), including by reaching a standing corps of 30,000
  • Ensuring a fully functional European digital border management
  • Preparing and responding to hybrid attacks and the instrumentalisation of migrants
  • Working with non-EU countries on border security, notably by developing an EU visa policy strategy
  • Implementing recent improvements to the Schengen framework

• “Standing fair and firm on migration”
  • Overseeing the implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum
  • Developing a new common approach on the return of irregular migrants
  • Leading the work in the fight against smugglers and people traffickers
  • Preventing the exploitation of workers in Europe with an irregular status
  • Taking forward the Global Alliance to counter migrant smuggling
  • Working with EU member states on a stronger coordination of rescue operations
  • Steering further reflections on innovative operational solutions to counter irregular migration
  • Working on the external aspects of migration, including contributing to the Pact for the Mediterranean
  • Ensuring real and viable legal pathways for refugees and a strategy for their integration into communities and the labour market, while strengthening EU readmission policies
  • Working on legal migration and contributing to the Union of Skills

Brunner’s confirmation hearing took place on 5 November. It was led by the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and members of the Committee on Development were also invited to participate. He made, inter alia, the following points related to the migration component of his portfolio:

• Pact on Migration and Asylum: Implementation with “fair but firm” rules is a top priority; Possible to accelerate the implementation of some elements
• Strengthening legal pathways: A priority with emphasis on attracting skills and talent in the labour markets
• EU eastern borders: “Hybrid attacks not only against Poland, Finland, the Baltic Member States but against the whole of Europe”
• Return hubs: Must be organised in a “humane and legally sound manner and always in co-operation with international organisations”; Concept only applies to people whose asylum applications have been rejected
• NGOs: “NGOs play an important role”; “Everyone has to follow the rules, no matter who they are”
• Proposal on returns: A “fair but firm” approach should be proposed before June 2025
• Infringement proceedings: Will be initiated for Pact implementation if justified
• Italian centres in Albania: Europe must be open to “innovative ideas”; Lessons to be learned from this experience: “Whole-of-route” approach is important as is co-operation with international partners (e.g. United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration
• Partnerships with third countries: EU must use “all instruments at its disposal” to co-operate with partner countries in the field of migration; EP should be involved in agreements, including with third countries so that it can “exercise its democratic control at various stages of the process as a whole”
• Impact assessments: Respect for fundamental rights is crucial; Important to carry out impact assessments but might not be possible in all cases
• Frontex: Permanent corps to be tripled to 30,000
• Implementation of the EU Action Plan for the Eastern Mediterranean

 

Dubravka Šuica – Commissioner-designate for the Mediterranean

Dubravka Šuica is the European Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, a position she has held since December 2019. Prior to that she was an MEP and an MP in Croatia.

According to the mission letter that she received from Ursula von der Leyen, Šuica will be responsible, inter alia, for the following policy areas:

• “A new Pact for the Mediterranean”:
  • Leading the work on the New Pact for the Mediterranean, building comprehensive partnerships and using an integrated approach
  • Ensuring that EU values and principles are at the heart of the Pact and engagement with the region
  • Ensuring that partnerships operationalise the external aspects of EU migration policy
  • Encouraging closer and deeper co-operation on security, fighting organised crime and terrorism, and critical infrastructure protection
• “A more strategic approach to the Southern Neighbourhood”:
  • Supporting the High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) on an EU Middle East Strategy with a view to the day after the war in Gaza
  • Taking forward the multi-year support programme for the Palestinian Authority
  • Supporting the HR/VP on the implementation of the Gulf Strategy and advancing work on strategic partnership agreements with each of the six Gulf countries
  • Working with the HR/VP on a strategic communication plan to promote the EU’s role in the Southern Neighbourhood

Šuica’s confirmation hearing took place on 5 November. It was led by the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs and members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and the Subcommittee on Human Rights were also invited to participate. She made, inter alia, the following points:

• New Pact for the Mediterranean: Will comprise two pillars: (1) building strategic partnership agreements with countries in North Africa and countries all over the Mediterranean, and (2) regional co-operation; One goal will be the “external dimension” of the Pact on Migration and Asylum
• Pact on Migration and Asylum: Need to accelerate work, including implementation of existing legislation and work on a new return directive; Need for strategic partnership agreements, with migration as an “important topic”, including “trying to help [partner countries] to build capacity within their countries, in order to be able to accept [people on the move], to work on reintegration and readmission”
• Legal pathways: Need to “strongly differentiate between legal and illegal migration”; Try to create “legal pathways for those who may need or want to come to Europe”; Option is to fight smugglers and human traffickers, and to work on legal pathways “to address root causes of migrants”;
• Partnership agreements:
  • Comprehensive strategic agreements will be offered to several states (e.g. Middle East, North Africa, Gulf)
  • Some “lessons learned” from partnerships with Egypt and Tunisia but also very good examples “especially with Egypt”
  • EP will be consulted “from the very beginning and before we start negotiations (…) always in accordance with prerogatives of the Parliament”
• Risk management exercise for Tunisia: “Results are of a confidential nature, which doesn’t mean that we cannot share the results with you”; “It can be bilateral”;
• Tunisia: “I am ready to impose robust monitoring”; “We have to impose definitely, and to enforce human rights conditionality”
• UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNWRA): Funding will continue
• Co-operation with other Commissioners: Close co-operation with Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration; Co-operation with HR/VP in context of strategic partnerships

 

In addition to Magnus Brunner and Dubravka Šuica, the following Commissioners-designate may also be relevant for the EU’s policies in the areas of migration and asylum in the period 2024-2029:

The EP is currently deliberating on the outcomes of the 26 confirmation hearings. The next step in the process will be for it to vote on the College of Commissioners as a whole. According to the provisional timetable, this vote should take place in the second half of November so that the new College of Commissioners can take office on 1 December. However, it is possible that it will be delayed if one or more of the Commissioners-designate does not receive a positive assessment following the confirmation hearings.

 

Links to Brussels-based media coverage of the ongoing process