As recently expected, Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) is to become the next Austrian EU Commissioner. After weeks of negotiations, the turquoise-green coalition announced the agreement in a press release on Wednesday. “Magnus Brunner knows the challenges at the European level and will ensure that both Austrian interests and European values are equally represented in the Commission,” said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP).
Brunner is “recognized in Europe, well connected beyond Austria’s borders and brings with him a number of skills,” said Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) in the joint press release. They have worked together very constructively in recent years.
Weeks of wrangling
The nomination had been the subject of wrangling within the coalition for weeks. At the beginning of June, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) announced that he no longer felt bound by a former side letter to the coalition agreement, according to which the ÖVP had the right to propose the next commissioner. Nehammer, in turn, insisted on the agreement. The ÖVP saw it as a further dig that the Greens ultimately supported the NEOS’s move to nominate the former ÖVP MP and EP Vice President Othmar Karas – a no-go for the People’s Party in view of the rift with their former representative. Most recently, even the Federal President is said to have advised the negotiators to quickly find a reasonable solution.
The 52-year-old Brunner from Vorarlberg has always had the best cards in the job poker. It is undisputed that he has the necessary skills for the post of EU Commissioner. The eloquent business expert, who also studied at King’s College London, has headed the Ministry of Finance since December 2021.
Edtstadler was also interested
Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) has also shown open interest in the job. However, it is rumored that the relationship between Nehammer and Edtstadler has cooled because she was mentioned as competition for the party chairmanship. Nehammer denied this in an APA interview, saying that “it is election time now,” and that this always “results in a lot of rumors,” but whoever spreads such things “obviously doesn’t really know much about the People’s Party.”
With this decision, the German government has not complied with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s wish that the member states nominate one man and one woman each. Before announcing the agreement, Nehammer stressed to the APA that the corresponding letter was an “opportunity” for the Commission President to address the heads of government, “but it is not a mandatory requirement”.
The domestic procedure in Austria stipulates that after a corresponding decision in the Council of Ministers, a “formal agreement” must be reached in the EU main committee in Parliament. Only then will the nomination of the designated Commissioner be formally communicated to the EU Council Secretariat.
Reactions of the other parties
Criticism of the nomination came from the SPÖ and FPÖ. SPÖ parliamentary group leader Philip Kucher referred to a “disastrous record of the current finance minister”, while FPÖ general secretary Christian Hafenecker was convinced that the ÖVP was only concerned “with the well-being of its own people”, after all, the FPÖ would have liked to have nominated the commissioner after coming first in the EU elections. NEOS MEP Helmut Brandstätter is also dissatisfied: “The appointment of such an important office must not take place behind closed doors.”
