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EU: Commissioner Vestager running for bloc’s top posts

By  |  March 21, 2019

The EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, and Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt are among the seven candidates from the European Parliament’s liberal, pro-business ALDE faction running for top posts within the European Union this year.

A former finance minister of Denmark, Vestager has gained a reputation as a tough enforcer of the bloc’s competition rules, slapping big fines on large corporations, like Google and Apple, and blocking a rail merger between Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom despite Berlin and Paris’ pressure to authorize the deal.

EU Competition Commissioner, Vestager was put forward in a team of lead candidates by the European liberal party, alongside six other prominent politicians from the centrist group, which include Belgium’s former prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and the EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc.