The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions companies and projects that achieve the policy aims of the European Union through loans,equity and guarantees.
JoséManuel Durão Barroso is a Portuguese politician and law professor. He previously served as the 115th prime minister of Portugal and from 2004–2014 as the 11th president of the European Commission.
Günter Verheugen is a German politician who served as European Commissioner for Enlargement from 1999 to 2004,and then as European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry from 2004 to 2010. He was also one of five vice presidents of the 27-member Barroso Commission. After his retirement,he is now honorary Professor at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder).
Michaele Schreyer is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who served as a European Commissioner from September 1999 to November 2004,holding the budget portfolio.
Viviane Adélaïde Reding is a Luxembourgish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Luxembourg. She is a member of the Christian Social People's Party,part of the European People's Party. She previously served as European Commissioner for Education and Culture from 1999 to 2004,European Commissioner for Information Society and Media from 2004 to 2010 and European Commissioner for Justice,Fundamental Rights and Citizenship from 2010 to 2014.
The Barroso Commission was the European Commission in office from 22 November 2004 until 31 October 2014. Its president was JoséManuel Barroso,who presided over 27 other commissioners. On 16 September 2009 Barroso was re-elected by the European Parliament for a further five years and his Commission was approved to take office on 9 February 2010.
Andris Piebalgs is a Latvian politician and diplomat who served as European Commissioner for Development at the European Commission from 2010 until 2014. Between 2004 and 2009 he served as Commissioner for Energy. Between 4 June 2016 and 19 August 2017,he served as the leader of the Unity party.
Olli Ilmari Rehn is a Finnish economist and public official who has been serving as governor of the Bank of Finland since 2018. A member of the Centre Party,he previously served as the European Commissioner for Enlargement from 2004 to 2010,European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro from 2010 to 2014,and Minister of Economic Affairs in Juha Sipilä's cabinet from 2015 until 2016. Rehn ran for President of Finland as an independent candidate in 2024,but was not elected.
Stavros Dimas is a Greek politician who was European Commissioner for the Environment from 2004 to 2009. From November 2011 to May 2012,he served in the government of Greece as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The New Democracy–PASOK coalition government nominated him for the post of President of Greece in December 2014,but he failed to achieve the necessary votes,forcing the dissolution of parliament.
Anna Cecilia Malmström is a Swedish politician who served as European Commissioner for Trade from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as European Commissioner for Home Affairs from 2010 to 2014 and Minister for European Union Affairs from 2006 to 2010. She was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Sweden from 1999 to 2006.
Margrethe Vestager is a Danish politician currently serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age since December 2019 and European Commissioner for Competition since 2014. Vestager is a member of the Danish Social Liberal Party,and of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE) on the European level.
Günther Hermann Oettinger is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources from 2017 to 2019,as European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society from 2014 to 2016 and as European Commissioner for Energy from 2010 to 2014.
The energy policy of the European Union focuses on energy security,sustainability,and integrating the energy markets of member states. An increasingly important part of it is climate policy. A key energy policy adopted in 2009 is the 20/20/20 objectives,binding for all EU Member States. The target involved increasing the share of renewable energy in its final energy use to 20%,reduce greenhouse gases by 20% and increase energy efficiency by 20%. After this target was met,new targets for 2030 were set at a 55% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 as part of the European Green Deal. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine,the EU's energy policy turned more towards energy security in their REPowerEU policy package,which boosts both renewable deployment and fossil fuel infrastructure for alternative suppliers.
Lykke Friis is Prorector for Education at the University of Copenhagen and is a former Danish politician for the party Venstre and former Minister for Climate and Energy and equal rights. Prior to her political career she has once before been Prorector at the University of Copenhagen and held the position from 2006 - 2009. Prior to her appointment as government minister,she was not a member of Venstre.
Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova is a Bulgarian economist serving as the 12th managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. She was the Chief Executive of the World Bank Group from 2017 to 2019 and served as Acting President of the World Bank Group from 1 February to 8 April 2019 following the resignation of Jim Yong Kim. She previously served as Vice-President of the European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker from 2014 to 2016.
The Commissioner for Climate Action is a post in the European Commission. It was created in 2010,being split from the environmental portfolio to focus on fighting climate change.
The history of the European Union from 2004 to the present is the current timeline of the European Union. It is a period of significant upheaval and reform following the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. The EU has taken on ten new members,eight of which were initially much poorer than the EU average,and took in a further two in 2007 with many more on the way. It created the euro a few years before and had to expand this,and the Schengen Area to its new members. However this was overshadowed by the late-2000s recession and damaging disputes over the European Constitution and its successor,the Treaty of Lisbon. Throughout this period,the European People's Party has been the largest group in the European Parliament and provides every President of the European Commission.
Marcin Korolec is a Polish civil servant and lawyer. He was the minister of environment in Donald Tusk's cabinet from 2011 to 2013 and secretary of state responsible for climate negotiations from 2013 to October 2015. He also served as deputy minister of economy responsible for trade policy in the cabinets of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz,Jarosław Kaczyński and Donald Tusk between 2005 and 2011.
Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra is a Dutch politician. He served as second Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the fourth Rutte cabinet between 10 January 2022 and 1 September 2023. Hoekstra previously served as Minister of Finance in the third Rutte cabinet from 2017 to 2022 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) from 2020 to 2023. In 2023,he was nominated to take on the role of Frans Timmermans as EU Commissioner,being responsible for climate action;a petition was started against Hoekstra's nomination due to his past work for Shell and his decisions that backed oil explorations in the Netherlands.
