Gender balance falls short, despite efforts
Cyprus’ Costas Kadis was named as European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans on Tuesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen announced the roles of her 26 commissioner nominees in Brussels, with a Cypriot taking on the fisheries brief for the first time.
“Every member of my team will bring in their own experience and perspectives on Europe. Together, we will be one team, working towards one common goal: to make Europe stronger,” she said.
Kadis said his nomination to the role was “a great honour, but also a huge responsibility”, describing his portfolio as “important”.
In later statements to journalists, he insisted the fisheries portfolio constitutes an “upgrade” from the health portfolio Cypriot commissioner Stella Kyriakides held between 2019 and now.
“It aims at the sustainability of fishing, but also of Europe’s oceans. In this direction, it will be part of our mission to formulate, develop and agree with all member states the Pact for European Oceans, which will also be one of our main pursuits in the next period,” he said.
He added that he has an “appetite” for work and that he will do a “good job for the good of fishing, for the oceans, and for the European Union in general.”
He added he was happy “since it also relates to the experiences I gained in the agriculture ministry, which, as you know, also had fisheries and marine research under its responsibility.”
His role will entail less than that of the previous fisheries commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius, whose portfolio also included the “environment”.
The environment brief is now in the hands of Sweden’s Jessika Roswall, whose full portfolio bears the title “environment, water resilience, and a competitive circular economy”, while the Netherlands’ Wopke Hoekstra and Spain’s Teresa Ribera Rodriguez also both have environment-adjacent briefs.
Kadis’ portfolio is not exactly what Cyprus’ government had hoped its nominee would attain, with President Nikos Christodoulides having said in July that Cyprus would be “interested” in the role of a European Commissioner for the Mediterranean.
Christodoulides said the country “has a lot to offer on shipping and other issues affecting the region”, and thus a Cypriot candidate would be “ideal” for the role.
He added that von der Leyen had created the role “after our own urgings”.

Von der Leyen had first floated the idea of a dedicated European Commissioner for the Mediterranean earlier in the summer, telling members of the European Parliament the Mediterranean “should get undivided attention”.
Kadis was asked about this on Tuesday, but insisted that “nothing went wrong” in him missing out on the role and instead being handed the fisheries portfolio.
“If you look at [von der Leyen’s] statements on her programme, you will see that special emphasis has been placed on this area, it has a significant budget, so I believe that Cyprus is getting an important portfolio which has a huge field of action,” he said.
Elsewhere, one standout role among those remaining is the EU’s first ever defence commissioner, named as Andreas Kubilius. Kubilius’ role also includes the exciting sounding “space” brief.
Moves had been made to create such a role in the wake of the Ukraine war, with the hope of unifying the EU’s defence policy and reducing Europe’s dependence on the United States in the field.
Christodoulides had said in April he believed the role will “further strengthen the European Union’s defence and security.”
He added, “we are one of those member states which believe that the EU’s security and defence should be strengthened even more. We want the Republic of Cyprus through the National Guard to participate in EU missions.”
This European Commission will be the fifth in which Cyprus has been an EU member state and thus been able to nominate a commissioner.
The country’s first European commissioner was Markos Kyprianou, son of late President Spyros Kyprianou, who served as health commissioner from 2004 until 2007 when he was replaced by Androulla Vassiliou, wife of former president George Vassiliou.
Vassiliou remained a commissioner but was given the education brief after the 2009 European elections.
After the 2014 European elections, then President Nicos Anastasiades nominated Christos Stylianides to serve as the Cypriot commissioner. He became the humanitarian aid commissioner, and remained in post until the 2019 European elections, after which Anastasiades nominated Kyriakides. Stylianides is now Greece’s shipping minister.
New European Commission lineup
President – Ursula von der Leyen (Germany)
Executive VP, Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition – Teresa Ribeira Rodriguez (Spain)
Executive VP, Prosperity and Industrial Strategy – Stephane Sejourne (France)
Executive VP, People, Skills, and Preparedness – Roxana Minzatu (Romania)
Executive VP, Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy – Henna Virkkunen (Finland)
High Representative for Foreign Affairs, VP – Kaja Kallas (Estonia)
Executive VP, Cohesion and Reforms – Raffaele Fitto (Italy)
Trade and Economic Security, Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency – Maros Sefcovic (Slovakia)
Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification – Valdis Dombrovskis (Latvia)
Mediterranean – Dubravka Suica (Croatia)
Health and Animal Welfare – Oliver Varhelyi (Hungary)
Climate, Net Zero, and Clean Growth – Wopke Hoekstra (Netherlands)
Defence and Space – Andrius Kubilius (Lithuania)
Enlargement – Marta Kos (Slovenia)
International Partnerships – Jozef Sikela (Czech Republic)
Fisheries and Oceans – Costas Kadis (Cyprus)
Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union – Maria Luis Albuquerque (Portugal)
Preparedness and Crisis Management, Equality – Hadja Lahbib (Belgium)
Internal Affairs and Migration – Magnus Brunner (Austria)
Environment, Water Resilience, and a Competitive Circular Economy – Jessika Roswall (Sweden)
Budget, Anti-Fraud, and Public Administration – Piotr Serafin (Poland)
Energy and Housing – Dan Jorgensen (Denmark)
Startups, Research, and Innovation – Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria)
Democracy, Justice, and the Rule of Law – Michael McGrath (Ireland)
Sustainable Transport and Tourism – Apostolos Tzitzikostas (Greece)
Agriculture and Food – Christophe Hansen (Luxembourg)
Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture, and Sport – Glenn Micallef (Malta)
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