President Barroso has finally unveiled his new team with multilingualism remaining in the Directorate General responsible for Education and Culture. It will also be in charge of the MEDIA Programme. Its new Commissioner will be Cypriot Liberal Androulla Vassiliou and Philippe Brunet is appointed as Head of the Cabinet.
Mrs Vassiliou used to be a member of the Culture Committee within the Cyprus Parliament and is respected for her openness and willingness to collaborate with NGOs and civil society organisations. She was also President of the World Federation of United Nations Associations for several years. She has been Vice President of the European Liberal Democracts and Reform Party and as such she has been the chairperson of the European Liberal Women’s Network.
Viviane Reding has been appointed Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. She will, therefore, also have to tackle the rights of minorities and assess to what extent the new Treaty can be an important tool to support this.
It remains to be seen how Commissioner Vassiliou and Commissioner Reding will collaborate on issues related to linguistic diversity as well as regional and minority languages in Europe.
The new College of Commissioners will now have to be approved by the European Parliament’s different Committees on 11-19 January.