Teresa Ribera enters the European Commission as a heavyweight, taking on portfolios that will anchor the bloc’s forward-looking strategy. President Ursula von der Leyen appointed her as one of the executive vice presidents to lead the Directorate-General for Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition, and to head the powerful Competition portfolio, a cornerstone of EU policy action.
The European Union has embraced the urgent, almost existential, task of returning to industrial leadership, ending the ongoing loss of competitiveness of its companies relative to the United States and China, and doing so by placing the ecological transition at the heart of policy. The new Commission intends to devote itself fully to the mandate that runs through 2029 to reach these linked aims. In these efforts Ribera’s department is seen as a center of leadership and coordination, waiting to see how power balances and overlaps with other vice presidencies and commissions will play out in practice.
Pillar of the Green Future
Von der Leyen explicitly charged the new executive with strategic tasks to enable the energy and ecological transition. In the mission letter, the president directs Ribera to oversee work to ensure the EU remains on track to meet the Green Deal goals, including ambitious emissions reductions and the shift toward net zero by mid-century. The roadmap emphasizes accelerating renewables, improving energy efficiency, and reinforcing energy security as central levers for growth.
One of the biggest challenges for the bloc’s competitiveness and for the growth of its industries is high energy prices, according to von der Leyen. She asks Ribera to lead efforts to lower energy costs, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and push investment in clean energy infrastructure while also addressing energy poverty as part of the housing and social policy agenda.
Energy has emerged as a key driver of reindustrialization and a way to close the competitiveness gap caused by volatile prices. European electricity costs run higher than those in the United States and China, and gas prices are markedly above those levels, adding volatility and regulatory divergence across member states. The Commission plans to keep advancing the energy transition and the rapid deployment of clean energy as a path to stronger, more reliable European industry.
Modernizing the Competition Policy
Beyond placing Ribera at the core of environmental and industrial policy, von der Leyen has also entrusted her with the potent Competition portfolio. The clear mandate is to modernize EU competition rules and to revisit merger guidelines with the aim of balancing resilience, efficiency, and innovation with the investment needs of Europe’s strategic sectors in a shifting security landscape.
In recent years the Competition Directorate-General, led by the influential Margrethe Vestager, has maintained a firm stance on large, continental-scale mergers due to their impact on competition and consumers. There have been calls to ease policy so that European firms can grow larger and better compete with global players in telecoms and heavy industry.
A report by Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, on European competitiveness highlighted that European tech and telecoms lack scale for the level of investment needed to meet rivals in North America and Asia, particularly in networks, artificial intelligence, and microchip fabrication.
For the new Commission, linking competition policy to the energy transition is a priority. Among the essential tasks given by von der Leyen to Ribera is the development of a new framework for state aid to accelerate renewable deployment, ensure industrial decarbonization, and rebuild Europe’s capacity to produce clean technologies.