Margrethe Vestager wants a second mandate as European commissioner for competition, she told Belgian newspapers L’Echo and De Tijd in an interview published this morning.
“What I would really like is a second mandate here at the Commission,” the Danish official said. “I have seen that it takes time to learn, train, do things properly and put things in place.”
“With a second mandate, I feel like we can do some fantastic things,” she said, specifying that she would like to retain the competition portfolio.
Vestager, one of the Commission’s most high-profile officials, recently made news for slapping hefty penalties on Apple and Google, and has set her sights on Silicon Valley’s tech giants over the way companies collect and use personal data.
POLITICO reported in November that French President Emmanuel Macron could back Vestager as the next Commission president, although she might struggle to find broad enough support to secure the nomination.
Asked about the possibility of taking the Commission top job, Vestager told the Belgian outlets: “It’s the same thing in European and national politics, there are rumors everywhere. But I take it as a nice compliment. It is always nice to know that someone thinks you are doing a good job.”
Commissioners are nominated by the governments of their home country and are then assigned a portfolio by the Commission president. That could be a problem for Vestager, whose party, the Danish Social Liberal Party, is currently in opposition in Denmark, where the center right leads the coalition government.
Plenty of commissioners have remained for a second term at the EU executive, including Vestager’s predecessor Neelie Kroes, but they rarely if ever retain the same portfolio for consecutive terms.
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