Viviane Reding - EU Justice Commissioner

EU Justice Commissioner

On 9 February 2010, Reding was confirmed in her third term as European Commissioner becoming Vice-President and Commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship.

Upon taking office she put in place a truly EU Justice policy launching a series of groundbreaking proposals in the field of civil, commercial and criminal justice in line with the ambitions set by the Treaty of Lisbon to establish a European area of justice. This included proposals to strengthen the rights of people in criminal proceedings, both as accused and as victims. Many of these proposals are becoming European law and consequently improving the rights of citizens across the European Union. She has also initiated a series of proposals aimed at making justice contribute for growth enabling both businesses and consumers to benefit fully from their rights in the European single market. These included proposals in field of consumer rights, in the field of cross order recovery of debts, sales law and data protection. Viviane Reding has also put in practice a fundamental rights culture across the European institutions and their policies. In October 2010 she set out a strategy and a methodology to achieve that end in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. She has also put in motion a citizenship-centred agenda with the drafting of the first-ever EU Citizenship report in October 2010 proposing concrete measures to make European Union citizens' lives easier.

In addition, Commissioner Reding also pushed for strengthing the EU's commitment to equality between women and men and consequently adopted a Women's Charter. Moreover, Viviane Reding has also presented measures to improve the representation of women in boardrooms of publicly listed companies. In September 2012 it became known that Mrs Reding was working on a proposal for introducing the 40% rule opening the way for women to be more represented in supervisory boards or non-executive board members of public listed companies in Europe. Reding stated that she believed that "women do not mean costs. It is good for companies to have more women on their board". This proposal has generated a vocal debate across Europe with disparate groups of stakeholders in favour and against. In response to the specific opposition by a group of only male Ambassadors or Permanent Representative of European Union Member States Mrs Reding stated that "thankfully, European laws on important topics like this are not made by nine men in dark suits behind closed doors, but rather in a democratic process”.

She has also pushed measures to improve the rights of people with disabilities across Europe by eradicating discrimination on the grounds of disability and eliminating the barriers faced by Europeans with disabilities whenever accessing goods and services.

On 7 July 2010, Viviane Reding had an official meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, in order to launch joint talks on the EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights. On that occasion, she was assaulted by a man with mental health problems in front of the Palace of Europe.

On 11 July 2011, Reding expressed criticism of the power exercised by the three major US credit rating agencies stating that breaking up the big three was an option being considered. This criticism was followed on 25 July 2012 with a statement questioning the timing and motivations behind the US rating agency Moody's comments over European ratings, drawing links with rating announcements in Europe with attempts to divert the attention of the markets from the growing debt mountain and economic difficulties in the US.

In April 2012 Viviane Reding declined an invitation by UEFA President Michel Platini to attend the Euro 2012 football championships citing "institutional reasons". She used the opportunity to invite UEFA "to take account of the dramatic situation of Yulia Tymoshenko" stressing that Europeans "cannot close their eyes on human rights even during a great sporting celebration". During the championships and in particular during the Germany vs. Netherlands match in Kharkiv she used her Twitter account to remind viewers about the plight of Ms Tymoshenko.