Brussels, 19/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Sixty-year-old Croatian social democrat Neven Mimica is to get the job of European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development in the Juncker Commission. An economist by training, Mimica is a diplomat who knows his way around the EU because he is currently EU Consumer Policy Commissioner. He will remain in history as the twenty-eighth European Commissioner and the first Croatian European Commissioner.
The new job he'll be getting seems better suited to his skills than Consumer Policy Commissioner, which he assumed on 1 July 2013 when his country joined the EU (one part of the Health and Consumer Commissioner job formerly held by Tonio Borg). In his hearing in 2013, Mimica's European commitment was praised but his answers were felt to be vague. He will be expected to provide more substance in his hearing at the European Parliament's development committee in the evening of Monday 29 September (from 18.30 to 21.30 hrs).
His experience at the Commission, even though it is too short for him to have made a mark, and his political career should be valuable to him in his hearing, where he will be quizzed on his skills and commitment to the job. MEPs will test his in-depth knowledge of a subject that is as technical as it is political.
Mimica was Croatian deputy prime minister with responsibility for domestic, European and foreign affairs from 2008 to 2013, when he resigned to join the Barroso Commission. He was previously a parliamentarian and European integration minister from 2001 to 2003. He worked overseas in Turkey and Egypt, giving him expertise in international relations and trade.
If he is confirmed in the job, Mimica will become Development Commissioner in 2015, a crucial year because it is European Development Year and the year when new goals will be negotiated to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
His job description says he will need to contribute to the work of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Development NGOs fear that development policy will be subservient to foreign policy interests, and place high hopes in the new commissioner to avoid this pitfall (see EUROPE 11153).
The European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) hopes the new Commissioner will work to improve links between foreign affairs and international cooperation and development to tackle global crises such as war, the economy and climate change. Reflection groups say that often the link between foreign relations and internal policies at the EU are underdeveloped due to the overlapping of responsibilities between the European External Action Service on the one hand, and the department for international cooperation and development on the other.
The future International Cooperation and Development Commissioner will be required to prepare the European Commission and EU's position for the global post-2015 programme talks.
He will also be required to: - ensure coherence between development policies and cooperate to this end with other Commissioners (Migration, Domestic Affairs and Employment; Agriculture; Climate Action and Energy; Environment; Maritime Affairs; and Fisheries); prioritise human rights, good governance and sexual equality, both in cooperation and development programmes and in policy dialogue with partner developing countries; - strengthen the EU's contribution to international cooperation and development, preparing and launching negotiations for a revised Cotonou Agreement between the EU and ACP countries; - and work to boost the EU-Africa partnership, particularly the security, trade and migration aspects.
The Commissioner will be supported in his work by Directorate-General DEVCO (part of DEVCO F, Neighbourhood, which has been moved to DG Enlargement). (AN)