ZAGREB, February 24, 2019 – Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager has been voted the best member of Jean-Claude Juncker’s European Commission, according to the results of a survey by public affairs firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), prepared in collaboration with EURACTIV. Croatian EU commissioner Neven Mimica is second to last.
The results were presented in Brussels earlier in the week. The online survey was conducted between October 9 and December 3 last year among 1,769 persons. Most respondents were residents in Belgium (38.5%), the UK (10.2%), and Germany (5.6%). Many respondents were business people, EU staff, media, NGOs and national governments.
Respondents gave their verdict on the performance of each individual commissioner, ranking them from 0 to 10.
With an approval rating of 50.2%, Vestager of Denmark was the only commissioner to achieve a score above 50%. The Commission’s average approval rate was 46%.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini (49.6%) came second, followed by Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans (46.9%), and EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström (44.7%).
At the bottom of the scale is Tibor Navrascics, the EU’s education Commissioner from Hungary, who was credited with an approval rating of only 19%, just behind Croatia’s Neven Mimica, the EU’s development aid Commissioner, with 20.6%.
The report says that Mimica “has aligned development policy with the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda, taking account of environmental and social factors. He has prepared the planned merger of 12 development funding streams into one, the €89.2 billion Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument. Last year, he helped launch formal talks on the EU’s relationship with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states after 2020. In the wake of the 2015 migration crisis, he adapted budget plans to include measures ‘addressing the root causes of irregular migration’, attracting criticism that he was diverting money for anti-poverty programmes – this may have been a factor as to why he came second last in the Scoreboard.”
With 20% of votes, Vestager was also the clear favourite to become the chief of the EU executive, followed by Finland’s former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb (7%), Timmermans (6%) and Barnier (5%).
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