BRUSSELS — Convincing European Union lawmakers to back her as the bloc’s new climate and competition chief will be the easy part for Spain’s Teresa Ribera.
If confirmed in her post, though, climate expert Ribera will quickly discover that the competition leg of her vast portfolio is a major head-scratcher, in a world where the EU is trying to boost its productivity and relevance in the face of an increasingly tense geopolitical scene.
As the chief enforcer of state aid rules, Ribera will have the last word on how EU countries subsidize companies to ensure large, deep-pocketed nations don’t outspend their smaller neighbors.
At the same time, she’ll oversee the Clean Industrial Deal, a major legislative initiative to seed the climate-friendly sectors of the future while helping existing companies cut carbon emissions and compete.
