Top Appointments in the UVDL Commission and its Predecessor: Continuing Politicisation or EU Insiders? A Socio-Morphological Analysis

Much has already been written about the new European Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen -- the break with the principle of the Spitzenkandidaten process, the pressure exerted by the European Parliament on Commissioner appointments, and its claim to be a geopolitical Commission. However, much less has been said about the socio-morphological changes that this new Commission shows. Unlike the "political" Commission headed by Jean-Claude Junker, the VDL Commission seems to reflect a break with the rising politicization of profiles that had marked earlier Commissions and the apparently constant rise in distinctively political capital. Analysis of top appointments reveals that the new Commission is headed by insiders of the European politico-bureaucratic field with less national political capital, which potentially positions the Commission very differently vis-a-vis Heads of State and Government. Based on a systematic statistical study of the new incumbents of the Commission's top positions (Commissioner, Head and Deputy Head of Cabinet, Directors-General and SG top team), the paper aims at testing this hypothesis. The comparison will be based on both a multivariate analysis and a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) aiming at comparing the two maps of power positions in the VDL and Juncker Commissions.