Enter Margrethe Vestager: Exit Joaquin Almunia Pursued By An Ombudsman

As outgoing EU competition commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, packs his family photos into the obligatory single cardboard box that embodies professional departures, the Brussels competition community is abuzz with speculation as to what might lie ahead under his replacement, Margrethe Vestager. Their contrasting public styles also invite some comment, with Mr Almunia under the cloud of an ombudsman investigation for outspoken public comment on a pending case.

Ms Vestager gave a polished performance during her successful confirmation hearing before the European parliament on 2 October. Denmark's deputy prime minister and minister for economic affairs and the interior until taking up this new challenge, this one-time unpaid intern in the European parliament showed qualities reminiscent of the fictional and charismatic Danish prime minister Birgitte Nyborg in the hit Nordic Noir series Borgen: quietly confident in her own abilities, measured but progressive, and with impeccable English. Ms Vestager is, after all, the leader of the Danish Radical Left Party (nicknamed the "Radicool" party). By her own admission, "literally it is radical left" but in substance it is "social liberals".

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Ms Vestager's in-tray when she takes office (on 1 November, if the schedule holds) will keep her busy. Her biggest customer, literally and figuratively, is arguably Google, with DG Comp presently looking at its alleged dominant practices in Search, the Android platform and other matters, while, in other quarters, Big Data concerns keep it equally in the limelight, along with calls for Europe to develop tech champions to counter Silicon Valley giants. And DG Comp's state aid investigations into sweetheart tax deals struck by member states such as Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands with prominent multinationals such as Apple, Fiat and Starbucks have come to the fore just in the last few weeks, as the European Commission reaches for any available angles of attack on member states engaging in unfair tax competition. Also in the in-tray are cartel investigations into various financial services (Libor, Forex, CDS) as well as auto parts, which have been trundling along for some time. Ms Vestager will in addition be responsible for pushing through changes to the EU Merger Regulation currently under debate in DG Comp's white paper Towards more effective EU merger control. And the potentially incendiary investigation into Gazprom's abusive terms of supply is presently on hold, pending the international crisis in the Ukraine.

Ogling Google

At the top of the new commissioner's inbox is DG Comp's...