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The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has appointed on Tuesday 10 September the 28 European Commissioners. The future executive of the EU will take office on 1 November. Ireland inherits one of the most prestigious positions: trade. Phil Hogan, who until now has been responsible for agriculture, will be at the forefront of tackling trade tensions with the United States and, above all, leading the negotiations on Brexit. Portrait.
With our correspondent in Dublin, Emeline Vin
A fierce negotiator, tough, but fair. This is how the former collaborators of Phil Hogan describe it. At 59, he built his entire career in politics.
Raised at a farm in southern Ireland, this economics graduate is only 22 years old when he gets elected to his county of Kilkenny. In a few years, he became a senator, deputy, and a member of his center-right party, the Fine Gael.
The Irish do not keep an excellent memory of Phil Hogan, nicknamed " Big Phil " because of its large size. As Minister of the Environment and localities in the government of Enda Kenny, he decides to tax running water and land ownership. We are in 2011, and Ireland is struggling to recover from the crisis.
Exfiltered on commission
His appointment to Brussels in 2014 as Commissioner for Agriculture is then an exfiltration. In Ireland he has never managed to occupy the most important posts.
Phil Hogan takes on Tuesday the portfolio of Commerce and will be responsible for one of the most important issues: the Brexit, which he has always fiercely criticized.
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