Looking for inspiration ahead of the hearings of the Commissioners-designate? We've got you covered!
The hearings of the 27 newly nominated Commissioners-designate are just around the corner, and by now you’re most likely gearing up to quiz them on a range of topics for which they may be responsible in the coming 5 years. Here at CONCORD, we also have some ideas we’d like to propose. We’ve formulated the below proposals for questions along with our 58 members which encompass both European networks and organisations based at national level.
These questions have been put together with one main objective in mind: to ensure that the next College of Commissioners upholds the EU’s commitment to advancing the sustainable development of its partner countries and actively involves civil society in the process.
The purpose of EU international cooperation is to promote sustainable development globally, not to advance the EU’s foreign policy agenda! If you agree, please consider asking Commissioners-designate the below questions during the hearings.
Commissioner-designate for International Partnerships: Jozef Síkela (DEVE)
- The role of international cooperation: How will you reconcile the EU’s economic interests with the goals of international cooperation, such as poverty eradication, equality and solidarity and addressing global environmental challenges?
- Inequality reduction: Given the Global Gateway initiative currently lacks explicit objectives for addressing inequality, are you planning to apply the I-Marker to the Global Gateway projects? How do you plan to collaborate with the EU’s partners to reduce inequalities within and between countries?
- Civil society as a partner: Considering civil society’s key role as a link to people both within and outside the EU as well as government institutions, how will you strengthen the EU’s collaboration with civil society in the field of international cooperation? How do you plan to ensure that future EU funding mechanisms and programmes adequately support CSOs with the resources they need to drive meaningful change on the ground?
- Funding for international cooperation: With the next MFF process on the horizon, how do you plan to ensure that the EU fulfils commitments on ODA spending and continues to provide essential financial support for sustainable development?
- Reaching the furthest behind first: How will you work with the HR/VP and the Commissioner for Crisis Management to ensure the EU’s action vis-a-vis fragile and conflict-affected states is properly coordinated and resourced, and that an integrated fragility strategy is indeed elaborated and implemented?
- Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development: How do you plan to ensure that policy coherence is integrated in all aspects of EU external action, including international cooperation?
- Gender equality and women’s rights: How will you ensure that the full implementation of the Gender Action Plan III remains a priority? How do you plan to ensure that EU funding mechanisms prioritise and increase funding for local women’s rights organisations and feminist movements which are critical drivers of progress in advancing gender equality in partner countries?
- Human rights: With the current geopolitical and geoeconomic turn in the new legislative mandate, how are you going to ensure that human rights are a cornerstone of the EU’s international cooperation policy to ensure dignity and respect for all individuals? How are you going to cooperate with the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in this regard?
- Equal partnerships with Africa: What will you do to ensure that the EU engages with African partner countries on an equal footing, recognising and responding to their interests in a way that is truly mutually beneficial, and what steps will you take to ensure there is a strong role for local civil society in these partnerships?
Designate High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: Kaja Kallas (AFET)
- Human rights-based external action: As EU external action shifts to a more geopolitical, geoeconomic and Europe-centric approach, how will you ensure that external action promotes respect for human dignity, human rights, equality and solidarity?
- Reaching the furthest behind first: In your role of overseeing the future direction of the EU’s external action, what steps will you take to ensure that the EU does not turn its back on the world’s most fragile contexts in which extreme poverty is concentrated?
- Gender equality: Given the global pushback against gender equality and sexual and reproductive health rights, how will you ensure that the full implementation of GAP III is advanced, and how will you anchor gender equality in the new EU Foreign Economic Policy as well as in other engagements with partners around the world?
- Intersectional Feminist Foreign Policy: Given the EU’s critical relationships with regions such as the Eastern Neighbourhood, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Africa (particularly the Sahel), India, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Central Asia, how do you plan to incorporate a foreign policy that reflects feminist principles? How will these initiatives promote collaboration over competition, advance human security, and guarantee long-term commitments to peace, sustainable development, and environmental integrity?
- Civil society: What will you do to strengthen the EU’s relationship with civil society, including in relation to their work with EU Delegations? What actions do you plan to take to defend, protect, and promote civic space in a time of increased attacks against civil society around the world?
- Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development: How do you plan to ensure that policy coherence is prioritised on the EU’s agenda and effectively integrated in the EU’s external action? What do you expect from EU delegations, as representations of the Union in partner countries, in identifying, and increasing the EU’s understanding of the external impacts of its policies and actions?
- Equal partnerships with Africa: How can the two objectives of building equal partnerships in Africa and developing a foreign economic policy be reconciled to ensure mutually beneficial partnerships with the EU’s partner regions, and how will you balance the EU’s interests and find alignment with the interest of its partners?
Commissioner-designate for the Mediterranean: Dubravka Šuica (AFET)
- Civil society: The Political Guidelines pledge to enhance the partnership between EU institutions and governments and civil society. How are you going to strengthen the EU’s engagement with civil society in the development and implementation of the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood policy?
- ODA instrumentalisation: Considering the trend is using ODA to limit migration counter to the EU’s ODA commitments, how do you intend to work with your colleagues responsible for international partnerships and crisis management to ensure that EU ODA is used solely to combat poverty and inequality, and that agreements with third countries do not present risks for human rights?
- Gender equality: Do you commit to the full implementation of the Gender Action Plan III? Do you commit to supporting the renewal of the Gender Action Plan after 2027 and to adopt, together with relevant Commissioners, a GAP IV?
Commissioner-designate for Crisis Management and Equality: Hadja Lahbib (DEVE & FEMM + LIBE, ENVI)
- External dimension of equality: Given the Treaties oblige the EU to respect the fundamental value of equality in its external action, how do you intend to collaborate with the Commissioner for International Partnerships to contribute to tackling inequalities within and between countries?
- Reaching the furthest behind first: What steps will you take towards ensuring the elaboration and implementation of a fragility strategy, which would harness humanitarian action and international cooperation for sustainable development outcomes?.
Commissioner-designate for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration: Piotr Serafin (BUDG & CONT + JURI)
- International cooperation budget: How do you plan to collaborate with your colleagues responsible for International Partnerships, the Mediterranean, and Crisis Management to ensure that the EU not only maintains but strengthens its ODA share in the next MFF? Furthermore, how will you ensure that the EU’s contributions to global sustainable development are sufficient to bolster its credibility and leadership in international fora, particularly in light of growing global challenges and the need for the EU to remain a relevant and reliable partner?
- Gender equality: How are you going to work to include gender equality as a horizontal principle of the budget in the next MFF cycle? How will you guarantee gender-targeted budget lines in relevant programmes, including the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI)?
Commissioner-designate for Trade and Economic Security: Maroš Šefčovič (INTA & AFCO)
- Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development: How do you plan to effectively integrate a policy coherence approach in the EU trade policy to ensure that progress towards sustainable development is not undermined by aspects of EU external action? How do you intend to ensure that negative impacts of trade policies and agreements on partner countries are properly assessed and mitigated?