A LOOK AT THE BACKGROUND OF 5 COMMISSION NOMINEES

CROATIA (AN ECONOMIST 61 Years Old)

Neven Mimica (born 12 October 1953) currently serves as a European Commissioner for Consumer Protection. Mimica graduated from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Economics in 1976. Between 1979 and 1997 he held positions in various governmental bodies related to foreign relations and foreign trade policies, including several counselling positions at embassies in Cairo and Ankara. In 1997 he was appointed assistant to the Croatian Minister of Economy and served as Croatia's chief negotiator during the country's accession to the World Trade Organization and the European Union Association Agreement. In September 2001 he became Minister of European Integration under Prime Minister Ivica Racan, position he held until December 2003. He was elected to the Croatian Parliament in 2003 as a representative of the Social Democratic Party, and again in 2007. On December 23, 2011 he was selected as a Deputy Prime Minister of the Croatian government, responsible for Internal, Foreign and European policy. On July 1, 2013 he became European Commissioner for Consumer Protection in the European Commission.

ESTONIA (A CHEMIST 58 years old)

Andrus Ansip (born 1 October 1956) was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2005 to 2014 and Chairman of the Liberal Estonian Reform Party from 2004 to 2014. Before his entry into politics Ansip trained as a chemist, before working in banking and business. He entered Parliament in 2004, quickly becoming Minister of Economic Affairs, and subsequently Prime Minister in April 2005. From 4 December 2013 to 26 March 2014 he was the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the European Union.

LATVIA (AN ENGINEER 43 years old)

Valdis Dombrovskis (born 5 August 1971) served as Prime Minister of Latvia from 2009 until 2013, when he resigned (following the Riga roof supermarket  collapse). He served as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004 and was a Member of the European Parliament for the New Era Party. Born in Riga o a family with Polish roots roots, Dombrovskis earned a bachelor's degree in economics for engineers from Riga Technical University in 1995 and a master's degree in physics from the University of Latvia in 1996. He worked as a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Physics of the University of Mainz in Mainz, Germany, from 1995 to 1996, as an assistant at the University of Latvia’s 's Institute of Solida-State Physics in 1997, and as a research assistant at the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1998.

Dombrovskis has been a Member of the Board of the New Era Party since 2002. He was Minister of Finance of Latvia from 2002 to 2004 and a Member of the Latvian Parliament during its 8th parliamentary term (2002–2004). Then he was Observer at the Council of the European Union (2003–2004). As Member of the European Parliament, Dombrovskis was a member of three European Parliament Committees: Committee on Budgets, Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. He is also a Substitute at Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Committee on Budgetary Control and delegation to the EU-Kazakhstan, EU-Kyrgyzstan, and EU-Uzbekistan Parliamentary Cooperation Committees, and for relations with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia. On 26 February 2009, following the resignation of Ivars Godmanis, President Valdis Zatlers nominated Dombrovskis to succeed Godmanis as Prime Minister.

MALTA (AN ARCHITECT, 64 years old)

Hon. Karmenu Vella  (born 19 June 1950 is a graduate  in Architecture, Civil Engineering and also with a Master of Science in Tourism Management from University of Sheffield. In 1974 he was appointed Managing Director of the Libyan Maltese Holding Company. Hon. Karmenu Vella was first successfully elected to Parliament in 1976 whereby he continued to be elected in the elections that followed for nine consecutive times. In 1973 he started to practice as an Architect. In 1981 he was appointed Minister for Public works, a post he served until 1983. From 1984 -1987 he was appointed as Minister for the Industry and as Minister for Tourism from 1996 till 1998. In 2001 he was appointed as Executive Chairman of Corinthia Hotels International until 2007. A year later he served as Executive Chairman of the Mediterranean Construction Co. Ltd until 2010. During the past three years he occupied the post of Chairman of Orange Travel Group. He also served as a Foundation Member of Vodafone Malta Foundation, Founding Chairman of the Maltese Turkish Business Council and Board Director of Betfair Group Ltd. Last March he was appointed again as Minister for Tourism. He is married has two children.

SLOVAKIA (A DIPLOMAT, 48 years old)

Maroš Šefčovič (born 24 July 1966) is the current European Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration. His area of responsibility includes the administration of the Commission, including management of some of the Commission's Internal Services; in particular consolidation of administrative reform, personnel and administration, European Schools and security. He is a former Slovak ambassador to Israel. From 2004–2009, he was the Slovak Permanent Representative to the European Union. He is married and has three children. Education: Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Comenius University in Bratislava, University of Economics in Bratislava