Brussels, 17/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Hungarian Tibor Navracsics, 48, has been handed the education, culture and youth portfolio by European Commission President designate Jean-Claude Juncker. Navracsics said on Twitter that he was happy with this role and was ready to go. He will also take on citizenship, which was not among the areas of responsibility of his predecessor, Androulla Vassiliou from Cyprus, raising some annoyance among civil liberties campaigners. Hungary was in the spotlight three years ago for its trial of strength with the European Commission over its controversial justice and media laws.
A moderate from the Fidesz party. Navracsics, the Hungarian foreign affairs and trade minister since May 2014, is a member of the ruling Fidesz party. He is a lawyer and specialist in the former Yugoslavia. In 2007, he was voted teacher of the year by the students at Budapest University, where he taught law. He had been hoping to become the enlargement commissioner, and thus be responsible for neighbourhood policy and the dialogue with Ukraine. His closeness to the Hungarian president, Victor Orban, whose attitude towards Russia is seen as ambivalent, put an end to those ambitions, even though he is considered to a moderate within his party.
His task is to support reform of the education systems. Navracsics will work under the guidance of Finnish vice-president Jyrki Katainen, who will have responsibility for employment, investment and competitiveness, and Latvian vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis, whose responsibility will be for the euro and social dialogue. In his mission statement, Juncker calls on Navracsics to contribute to education system reform and to work towards realisation of the 2020 strategy goals in education. He will work to modernise the universities by promoting excellence and work in networks of establishments, and to strengthen the knowledge triangle (education, work, research). He will also promote culture as a driver of innovation and lever of economic growth, and complement the work of the employment and social affairs commissioner in tackling youth unemployment through the acquisition of better targeted skills. Navracsics will, in addition, be responsible for citizenship, where his task will be to enhance people's understanding of how European policies currently work and to help citizens learn more about the EU and to become involved in EU debates.
Citizenship, a poisoned chalice. It is with this last portfolio that Navracsics will have cause for concern at his hearing before the Parliament's culture and education committee, scheduled for 1 October. In charge of public administration and the judicial system from 2010 to 2014, he was the architect of judicial reforms that lowered the age of retirement for judges from 70 to 62 and which led to a concentration of power in the hands of the president of the National Justice Office. These reforms allowed Orban to hold judges on a tight rein and to seriously hamper the independence of the judiciary, provoking the ire of the Commission and leading to some spats between Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding and Navracsics himself. The laws reducing the rights of the media, which saw Commissioner Neelie Kroes join battle, could also make Navracsics a candidate for citizenship commissioner that the European Parliament would rather not have. The S&D Group has already stated that it will question him on these issues. “He will have to demonstrate his willingness to promote the fundamental values of the EU”, said S&D leader Gianni Pittella (Italy). The Greens/EFA Group views the nomination of Navracsics as “provocation”. (IL)