Czech Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela is set to become the Commissioner for International Partnerships in the new European Commission, its President Ursula von der Leyen announced at a press conference in Strasbourg today.
Sikela will be responsible for overseeing European international cooperation and development policy, promoting coordination between the EU and its member states in the field of development cooperation, as well as working with partners to boost EU values, including democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
Responding to the appointment, Sikela wrote on social media that the commission’s international partnerships portfolio provides an opportunity to focus on strengthening Europe’s economic security, diversifying suppliers of critical raw materials, and opening up new markets for European companies.
Sikela will take over the portfolio from the previous Finnish commissioner Jutta Urpilainen. It includes the largest Directorate-General (DG), which employs 3,000 people and has significant financial resources at its disposal.
In relation to the European Commission, DGs roughly correspond to ministries.
In addition to international cooperation, Sikela is to be in charge of the EU Global Gateway investment initiative, via which the European Union wants to compete with China’s ‘New Silk Road’ project. The initiative envisages investments of up to 300 billion euros in infrastructure in developing countries, especially in Africa, India, Latin America and the Pacific, over the next few years.
“My aim was to get a strong economic portfolio for the Czech Republic, and given that the International Partnerships one has a really significant budget and one of the largest DGs in the whole European Commission, I am confident that I will be able to ensure that this portfolio is really significant,” Sikela said.
