{"id":1053,"date":"2025-10-02T04:01:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/new-commissioners-and-ominous-footnotes\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:01:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:01:47","slug":"new-commissioners-and-ominous-footnotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/europe-s-international-role\/new-commissioners-and-ominous-footnotes\/","title":{"rendered":"New Commissioners And Ominous Footnotes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"middle content\">\n<div class=\"column left\" id=\"columnleft\">\n<section class=\"block article author\">\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<h3>About the author<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-content\">\n<div class=\"about-author\">\n<div class=\"tleft\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/var\/broker\/storage\/images\/authors\/keijzer-niels\/156797-2-eng-gb\/keijzer-niels_author.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"tright\">\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/keijzer-niels\/\">Niels Keijzer<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNiels Keijzer is a researcher at the German Development Institute \/ Deutsches Institut f\u00fcr Entwic&#8230;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/keijzer-niels\/\">full profile<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"block article author\">\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<h3>Tags<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"New Commissioners and ominous footnotes\">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/4271\/4802\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew Commissioners and ominous footnotes<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/keijzer-niels\/\">Niels Keijzer<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t29 November 2025<br \/>\n\t<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Last Friday, European Commission President Barosso presented his proposed 27-strong team and the policy portfolios for each of them. Reactions in the press on the proposed team of Commissioners are on average &#8216;tentatively positive&#8217; of the mix of experience and new blood, while also starring one woman more than the present team. It goes without saying that the European Parliament is quite anxious to organise the hearings for the proposed Commissioners in the first weeks 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Columnist Nicu Popescu has published an interesting analysis of the Commission&#8217;s press release and <a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/rapid\/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP\/09\/1837&amp;format=HTML&amp;aged=0&amp;language=EN&amp;guiLanguage=fr\" target=\"_blank\">description of portfolios<\/a> in a blog on the EU Observer website. In his column, he notes that 5 of the 6 footnotes in the Commission&#8217;s description concern the division of tasks between the Commissioners that are part of the &#8216;External Relations family&#8217;. Popescu notes in his column that <i>&quot;EU footnotes are usually pandora boxes for inconsistencies&quot;<\/i>, and that the Commission&#8217;s foreign policy will remain fragmented between various actors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The proverbial External Relations family is also increased by the decision to split the current portfolio for development and humanitarian aid into two by entrusting the development portfolio to Latvian candidate Andris Piebalgs, while the Bulgarian candidate Rumiana Zheleva would take care of international co-operation, humanitarian aid and crisis response.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Reading through the Commission&#8217;s portfolio description, it&#8217;s further interesting that the development commissioner will in the future politically represent the Commission in EU Foreign Affairs Council, and will be responsible for the &#8216;development part&#8217; of the EuropeAid Cooperation Office. While time will tell whether this qualifies as a &#8216;Pandora box footnote&#8217;, it does already raise a whole bunch of questions that will hopefully be addressed soon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>        <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n            \/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n            var disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n            var disqus_identifier = '3784';\n            \/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n            {\n                console.log(comment);\n            }\n\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n                this.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n                console.log(comment);\n                }];\n            }\n\t\t\t(function() {\n                var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n                dsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/europe-s-international-role\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n                (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n            })();\n        <\/script><br \/>\n        <!--\n        <noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n        -->\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About the author Niels Keijzer Niels Keijzer is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_3.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1053","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Commissioners and ominous footnotes \/ Europe&#039;s International Role \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last Friday, European Commission President Barosso presented his proposed 27-strong team and the policy portfolios for each of them. Reactions in the press on the proposed team of Commissioners are on average &#039;tentatively positive&#039; of the mix of experience and new blood, while also starring one woman more than the present team. It goes without saying that the European Parliament is quite anxious to organise the hearings for the proposed Commissioners in the first weeks 2010.Columnist Nicu Pop...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/europe-s-international-role\/new-commissioners-and-ominous-footnotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Commissioners and ominous footnotes \/ Europe&#039;s International Role \/ Blogs - The Broker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last Friday, European Commission President Barosso presented his proposed 27-strong team and the policy portfolios for each of them. 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