First Vice-President of the European Commission (EC) Maroš Šefčovič is the sixth most influential European who can decide what happens in Europe in 2024. This follows from the ranking of the 28 most influential people in Europe, which was presented by the weekly Politico on Tuesday.
Politico explained that the annual "power rankings", a list of those who set the direction of the debate and drive the decisions in Europe, now revolves around the idea of whether European moderate politicians will be able to marginalize the radical political forces that threaten their power.
According to Politico, each politician has an adjective that best characterizes him. Šefčovič was described as a "reliable visionary".
The Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, the Head of the Office of the Ukrainian President Andriy Jermak and Turkish president Recep Tayip Erdogan came before the Slovak European commissioner.
When presenting Šefčovič's profile, Politico asked whether there is a job in the European Commission that he is not currently doing. The weekly noted that the 57-year-old Slovak in his third full term as European Commissioner has accumulated so many job positions that he can't even fit them on one business card. Šefčovič is responsible for the implementation of the European Green Deal. He is leading important post-Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom. He is in charge of inter-institutional relations and strategic outlook. He is finalizing negotiations on new association agreements with Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino and Switzerland. He is vice-chairman of the EU Energy Platform, which ensures joint purchases of natural gas, and his name is still associated with the European Battery Alliance. The weekly recalled that Šefčovič, before temporarily replacing Ján Figeľ in the European Commission in 2009, was the Slovak ambassador to Israel and head of the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the EU. Today, he is the longest serving member of the College of Commissioners. Von der Leyen has entrusted him with some of the most complex portfolios in the European Commission, and Šefčovič, according to Politico, has managed to successfully handle these challenges.
Especially thanks to negotiations with London on fine-tuning post-Brexit mutual relations, he gained the reputation of "Mr. Fix It".
(TASR)
