ČT24 | Síkela to be European Commissioner for International Partnerships, von der Leyen has announced

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced the staff of the new European Commission. Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Síkela is to be Commissioner for International Partnerships. This portfolio includes the largest ever Directorate-General, which employs three thousand people and has a large financial envelope. Viktor Daněk, deputy director of EUROPEUM Institute, comments for ČT24.

It's a very interesting portfolio. Síkela will be in charge of a huge budget and will have the largest directorate-general in the European Commission under him. It has the potential to build up quite a lot of informal influence and speak into related portfolios that are not directly under his responsibility.  

The Czech government, on the other hand, was looking for a portfolio from which Síkela could involve into the internal workings of the European economy, and here he will be looking more outwards. So I think there must have been some disappointment.

Read the full article here.

Viktor Daněk
Deputy Director

Before entering the NGO sphere, Viktor Daněk worked for almost ten years as a journalist. During his time with the public service Czech radio, he focused mainly on covering EU affairs. He spent almost five years as a permanent correspondent in Brussels, where he cooperated with other media outlets. Before his career in journalism, he gained experience in the area of marketing and communication in the Česká spořitelna banking group and at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He holds university degrees in Media Studies and International Relations. Viktor Daněk joined the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in October 2023. He continues to be active in the media as a freelancer. His main areas of interest are institutional questions of European integration, globalisation and the EU’s climate and migration policy.