European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection

European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection
Incumbent Michael McGrath since 1 December 2024
European Commission
Style	Mr. Commissioner
Nominator	Member states in accordance with the President
Appointer	President of the European Commission
Term length	Five years
Formation	1995
First holder	Anita Gradin

Portfolio

Summarize

Perspective

The post was created in 2010 by splitting the previous Justice, Freedom and Security portfolio into a justice post (the subject covered here) and a security post: the Commissioner for Home Affairs. This split was made as a concession to the liberals in the European Parliament to gain their support for the second Barroso Commission.

A major innovation of the Juncker Commission is the nomination of a First Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, for Better Regulation, Inter-Institutional Relations, Rule of Law and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. His role includes to "guide and coordinate all other Justice and Home Affairs(JHA)-related Commissioners, in particular those of the new DG Justice (Věra Jourová) and the DG Home Affairs (Dimitris Avramopoulos)".^[1]

The portfolios of Justice and Equality were previously combined as Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality under commissioner is Věra Jourová; however, the two portfolios were split in 2019.

The portfolio of the Commissioner has evolved under the Juncker Commission and renamed into Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. Major changes are:

"The Commissioner for Justice no longer holds the title [of "Commissioner for EU Citizenship"] that was used in the previous Commission. [...] Other citizenship-related matters regarding ‘communication to citizens’ have been moved from DG Communication and attributed to the new Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship."^[1]
"Issues related to non-discrimination in employment [and the rights of persons with disabilities] have been removed from DG JUST and placed back under DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. However, DG JUST still holds responsibility for the wider non-discrimination portfolio."^[1]
DG JUST gained competences on issues related to Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility, previously in DG Internal Market and Services (MARKT), and on issues related to Consumer Affairs. Regarding Consumer Affairs, the whole directorate has been transferred from DG Health and Consumers (SANCO) - now DG Health and Food Safety (SANTE), except for Health Technology and Cosmetics issues, for which DG Enterprise and Industry (ENTR) gained responsibility.^[1]
The responsibility of Anti-Drug Policy has been transferred to DG Home Affairs (HOME).^[1]

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List of commissioners

DG Justice, Freedom and Security (1995–2010)

More information Name, Country ...

Country	Period	Commission
Anita Gradin	Sweden	1995–1999	Santer Commission
António Vitorino	Portugal	1999–2004	Prodi Commission
Franco Frattini	Italy	2004–2008	Barroso Commission I
Jacques Barrot	France	2008–2010	Barroso Commission I

DG Justice and Consumers (2010–2024)

More information Name, Country ...

Country	Period	Commission
Viviane Reding	Luxembourg	2010–2014	Barroso Commission II
Věra Jourová	Czech Republic	2014–2019	Juncker Commission
Didier Reynders	Belgium	2019–2024	Von der Leyen Commission I