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Till Hoppe

Till Hoppe Published: December 5th, 2024

Ursula von der Leyen and her head of cabinet Björn Seibert are currently fine-tuning the new EU Commission’s work program; the document is due to be published before Christmas. However, the EPP does not want to wait for the result: The Christian Democrats are currently writing their own wish list for their party colleague von […]

Till Hoppe Published: December 3rd, 2024

New Commission: These are the heads of cabinet

The closest staff members of the new EU Commissioners have largely been determined. Accordingly, four cabinets will be led by Germans, plus five deputies. By way of comparison, France will have one Head of Cabinet and six deputies.Behind the scenes, there is always an intense struggle to fill the posts. The leadership of the cabinets […]

Till Hoppe Published: December 2nd, 2024

The new EU Commissioners took office on Sunday, with Foreign Affairs Commissioner Kaja Kallas and the new Council President António Costa also making an exclamation mark with their trip to Kyiv. At the start, however, it was still unclear to some extent how the newcomers would appoint their closest staff.The delay is not only due […]

Till Hoppe Published: December 1st, 2024

Jean Pisani-Ferry: ‘We are in an uncomfortable position’

Mr. Pisani-Ferry, the budget dispute in France is unsettling the markets. Do you think it can be resolved?JPF: Absolutely. The question is: at what cost? The concessions Prime Minister Barnier has already made to Marine Le Pen amount to at least €3 billion. The real issue is the price of the National Rally’s abstention in […]

Till Hoppe Published: November 28th, 2024

Estelle Goeger is to become Deputy Head of Cabinet to Commission Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné. The Franco-German currently works in the Grow Directorate-General. Frenchman Bertrand L’Huillier is expected to become Head of Cabinet, as Contexte reports.Is something changing in your organization? Send a note for our personnel section to heads@table.media!

Till Hoppe Published: November 28th, 2024

What the Commission is planning for the first 100 days

The new EU Commission takes up its mandate on Dec. 1. Ursula von der Leyen already outlined the main features of her agenda in her political guidelines and the Commissioners’ terms of reference in the summer. A detailed work program is to follow before Christmas.In her speech in the European Parliament, the Commission President announced […]

Till Hoppe Published: November 27th, 2024

Anti-Money Laundering Authority: EU Parliament in favor of Italian candidate

The new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) is to be headed by an Italian woman: Following a hearing of the three candidates, the coordinators in the European Parliament’s Economic and Internal Affairs Committee opted for Bruna Szego, previously head of the anti-money laundering unit at the Italian central bank. The German candidate Marcus Pleyer lost out, […]

Till Hoppe Published: November 24th, 2024

Leyen Commission: How MPs want to vote

On Wednesday afternoon, the Von der Leyen Commission II will face the vote of MEPs in Strasbourg. The bar is not as high as on July 18, when Ursula von der Leyen needed 360 votes for her re-election, i.e. more than half of all 719 elected MEPs had to vote for her. This time, the […]

Till Hoppe Published: November 22nd, 2024

Szijjártó’s propaganda stage

Péter Szijjártó speaks fluent English, but the Hungarian Foreign Minister preferred to hold the press conference following yesterday’s meeting of trade ministers in his native language. This was probably also due to the fact that the appearance was aimed more at the domestic audience than the assembled journalists in Brussels.In any case, Szijjártó did not speak […]

Till Hoppe Published: November 21st, 2024

New Commission: Parliament nominates all 26 Commissioners

On Wednesday evening, the coordinators nominated the six Executive Vice-Presidents of the second Von der Leyen Commission and Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi by a two-thirds majority. The agreement almost fell apart over the evaluation of Teresa Ribera. The EPP wanted to state in the evaluation letter that the Executive Vice President must resign if she […]