EU names new tech and competition EVPs in wake of Breton bust-up

Virkkunen has served as an MEP since 2014, and before that held various high-ranking roles in her homeland's government, including stints at the education, local government, public administration and transport ministries.

Ribera has a similarly impressive CV, serving as Spain's minister for ecological transition since 2018. In 2020, she also assumed the role of minister for demographic challenge, and was appointed as one of her government's vice presidents.

Von der Leyen is keen for the new-look Commission to better reflect the symbiotic and interconnected relationships between society, economy, environment and so-on. In practice, that means each of her executive vice presidents will have equal say and responsibility, and each has been given a broad and to some extent overlapping portfolio.

"All Commissioners must work together. In this spirit, each executive vice president will also have a portfolio to focus on – for which they will have to work with other Commissioners," said von der Leyen. "Because what affects security affects democracy, what affects the economy affects society, and what affects climate and environment, also affects people and business."

With that in mind, Virkkunen's full title is EVP of Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. She will also be responsible for what the EU calls 'digital and frontier' technologies.

It will be her job to ensure the EU meets its 2030 Digital Decade targets and to drive investment in high-speed connectivity. She will also lead the EU's work on AI, semiconductors, cybersecurity, cloud and supercomputing.

Meanwhile Ribera's full title is EVP of a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition – a wordy way of saying 'decarbonisation'. Crucially for telcos and their ambitions, she will also be responsible for competition policy.

That means reviewing horizontal merger control guidelines and state aid rules, and tackling anticompetitive practices. Ribera will also be tasked with establishing closer ties between international competition authorities, and strengthening and speeding up the enforcement of competition rules.

Also having a bearing on EU telecoms policy is France's Stéphane Séjourné. He has been named as the Commission's new EVP for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, and will also be responsible for SMEs and the single market.

Although he has a different job title, Séjourné effectively replaces Thierry Breton, whose tenure as Internal Market Commissioner came to an ignominious end earlier this week.

It's not immediately clear what Virkkunen, Ribera, and Séjourné have in store for telecoms and big tech, but viewing their appointments through the prism of the recently-published Draghi report suggests a softer stance on cross-border mega-mergers, continued coordination to drive development of emerging technologies, and a more concerted effort to harmonise telco rules and regs at the EU level.

With various alarm bells sounding over the EU's lack of competitiveness compared to its global peers – particularly when it comes to the financial health of the telecoms industry – this new crop of Commissioners will be under pressure to deliver.