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“When Valdis speaks, financial markets calm down,” said a former staffer of his. The Brussels bubble is rife with jokes about his somnolent press conferences and robotic demeanor. In his spare time he’s a keen sailor. But as a former finance commissioner and vice president for the economy, almost everyone agrees that he’s a safe pair of hands who knows the machine.
So-called frugal countries were jittery about Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné bagging a beefed-up executive vice presidency job that would give him oversight of the economy, industrial strategy and trade among others things. They can instead see Dombrovskis’ appointment as a victory.
Formally, Dombrovskis will report to Séjourné. In practice, he’ll likely be calling the shots given his control over the bureaucratic machine, the finance department, DG ECFIN. His longtime Cabinet chief, Michael Hager, a German, is expected to continue in his role.
A strong backer of Ukraine, Dombrovskis was widely tipped as a potential defense or enlargement commissioner. In the economy post, he’ll likely push the pedal on a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, agreed at the level of the G7 group of leading economies, that will have to be finalized by the end of the year.
He’ll also be “commissioner for implementation and simplification,” a fuzzy title for which he’ll report directly to von der Leyen.
Stricter than Gentiloni
“I expect from Dombrovskis to make use of the discretionary powers the Commission now has under the revised fiscal rules to grant member states the fiscal space they need to invest into Europe’s economy,” German Socialist MEP René Repasi told POLITICO. “Now is not the time for frugals.”