It was a case of third time fortunate for Jozef Síkela.
First linked to the vitality portfolio, then to the commerce beat, the 57-year-old Czech lastly landed at DG INTPA — the inelegantly named Directorate Normal for Worldwide Partnerships.
But what would possibly sound like a second-tier division is definitely a key factor of Fee President Ursula von der Leyen’s imaginative and prescient of an financial international coverage guided by geopolitics. As steward of the €300 billion International Gateway infrastructure initiative, Síkela will no less than have cash to play with as Brussels tries to compete with Beijing’s Belt and Highway.
The ex-banker and trade minister brings enterprise and crisis-management abilities to the desk. He beforehand gained respect for his coordination of Europe’s response to an vitality disaster — sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — throughout Prague’s presidency of the Council in late 2022.
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