EU: Vestager ranked “best” EU Commissioner

EU antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is the clear favorite to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the next president of the European Commission, according to the results of a Europe-wide online survey that came out on February 19th.

The survey by public affairs firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), prepared in collaboration with EURACTIV, invited respondents to give their verdict on the performance of each individual Commissioner, ranking them from 0 to 10.

With an approval rating of 50.2%, Vestager was the only Commissioner on Jean-Claude Juncker’s team of 28 to achieve a score above 50%. The Danish came just ahead of EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini (49.6%), Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans (46.9%), and EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström (44.7%).

Juncker himself came fifth, with a score of 44.4%. At the bottom of the scale is Tibor Navrascics, the EU’s education Commissioner from Hungary, who was credited with an approval rating of only 19%, just behind Croatia’s Neven Mimica, the EU’s development aid Commissioner, with 20.6%.