{"id":60993,"date":"2026-04-14T19:28:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/60993\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:28:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:28:39","slug":"why-orbans-man-in-brussels-is-here-to-stay-for-now-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/60993\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Orb\u00e1n\u2019s man in Brussels is here to stay \u2014 for now \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

… easier to freeze out<\/p>\n

Ultimately, whether V\u00e1rhelyi continues to hold sway in the Berlaymont is largely in his own hands.<\/p>\n

According to a commissioner who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, commissioners cannot be removed, but if they start working against their country of origin \u2014 in the event, for example, that the government direction changes back home \u2014 they can become sidelined and will lose credibility with the rest of the college.<\/p>\n

Indeed, if Brussels has learned anything over the years, it\u2019s that a commissioner doesn\u2019t need to be removed to become irrelevant.<\/p>\n

\"\"Former European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski presents new proposals for farmers during a briefing at the European Parliament Office in Warsaw on March 15, 2024. | Sergei Gapon\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Take Janusz Wojciechowski, Poland\u2019s agriculture commissioner, nominated in 2019<\/a> by the nationalist Law and Justice government. When Donald Tusk\u2019s pro-EU coalition took power in late 2023, Warsaw changed course, but Wojciechowski stayed in place and served out his mandate until November 2024.<\/p>\n

He had already been cut out of the Commission\u2019s biggest policy battles<\/a>. From early in von der Leyen\u2019s first mandate, key files, including the Green Deal\u2019s agricultural dimension, were steered elsewhere.<\/p>\n

By the end, his role had shrunk to the margins. Meetings happened without him. Decisions moved ahead without his input. What remained was the long tail of the job. He focused on doling out EU subsidies, often with an eye on farmers in his native Poland<\/a>, and citing farm statistics. He also posted \u2014 a lot \u2014 on social media, including on topics like road safety that had little to do with his portfolio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"… easier to freeze out Ultimately, whether V\u00e1rhelyi continues to hold sway in the Berlaymont is largely in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[8000,211,33611,2759,210,228,185,15789,7039,3039,33612,33613,31928,6552,17357,182,7512,19742,1888,4038],"class_list":{"0":"post-60993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-animal-welfare","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-biotech-drugs","11":"tag-biotechnology","12":"tag-brussels","13":"tag-competitiveness","14":"tag-donald-tusk","15":"tag-drug-pricing","16":"tag-health-systems","17":"tag-hungary","18":"tag-janusz-wojciechowski","19":"tag-medicines","20":"tag-oliver-varhelyi","21":"tag-peter-magyar","22":"tag-pharma","23":"tag-poland","24":"tag-research-and-development","25":"tag-roads","26":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","27":"tag-viktor-orban"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116404715998520792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}