Denmark's Margrethe Vestager has been a driving force of the European Commission's agenda, particularly in her role as Competition Commissioner. She talks to Global Conversation ahead of passing on the baton.
Margrethe Vestager is one of the EU's most powerful figures. The Executive Vice President of the European Commission is known for slapping US big tech giants with multi-billion euro fines, actions which earned her the sobriquet 'the tax lady'' from former US President Donald Trump. The Dane will soon bid farewell to Brussels after being in charge of competition and digital policies for almost ten years. For Euronews Witness reporter Maïa de La Baume spoke with her about her time in office and the big challenges facing the European Union today and the in the future.
Among those will be achieving greater female representatation in the parliament and Commission, which has gone backwards since elections in June. Vestager describes it as a "demasking of the lack of efforts when it comes to equal opportunities and gender balance," but she praises Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's for pressuring member states to do more: "Every prime minister would say I put my own government together. She's only asking for two people to choose from. And I think it's it's really a pity that Member States do not follow through and gives her this opportunity to make the best possible Commission and to make it gender balanced, because we were we were making progress. We were, you know, also visually showing that, a Commission that is gender balanced is capable of doing, you know, unprecedented work, as we did in this mandate under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen," she says.
Far right v Rule of Law
Restricting the impact of the far right on rule of law in the EU should also be a priority for pro-institution politicians, following the big gains for hardline nationalist parties in the recent European elections, Vestager believes. "The good thing about where we are right now is that we have the legislation in place," she says. "We have really strong legislation, both the Digital Markets Act, to make sure that the market is open and fair, and that it's Services Act to make sure that the services are safe while preserving, freedom of speech. And I think the important balance is they have been kept here. So even if the government may be hostile, to some of the efforts, you know, it's the law. And we are a union built on the rule of law. So I think it will be very, very difficult, you know, to sway the course that we have taken to make sure that into services, actually is a service and not something that you get addicted to that makes your life difficult or that is used to undermine our democracy."
Future challenges
Vestager also recognises the challenges to democracy and society in general from big tech and artificial intelligence and has this advice for the person who will eventually replace as Competition and Digital commissioner: "I'm not a competition lawyer, I'm educated as an economist, and I've been working in politics for for most of my life. And, what I tried to do was not to be too scared or too impressed by all the clever lawyers around me, but to push for things that I found was really important; the fan is in the marketplace that technology serves consumers, and not the other way round; That market should be open and contestable, you know, because if you speak a language that you can understand yourself, then very often people can also understand it, and they will support you in your efforts to make sure that we in our role as consumers are being well-served by the market."
Click on the link above to watch the interview in full.