Irishman Anthony Whelan has been appointed head of the European Commission’s competition department, one of the most important positions in the EU executive body.
Whelan, a career EU civil servant who served as a key adviser to Ursula von der Leyen for several years, had been deputy director general of the commission’s competition directorate.
The commission department oversees politically contentious EU state-aid investigations, such as the Apple case challenging the tech giant’s previous favourable tax arrangements in Ireland. The job heading the commission’s competition arm is a coveted one in the Brussels political system.
Whelan’s appointment to the senior commission post will be welcome news for the Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs, who have become concerned about losing influence inside the Brussels administration as significant numbers of Irish-born EU civil servants are due to retire in the coming years.
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Although officials working in the commission represent the European interest, rather than a national one, governments still like to have a good spread of their nationals in senior posts.
The commission is the body that proposes and enforces EU laws. Its antitrust investigations into the practices of US tech multinationals have been a regular point of tension between Brussels and Washington.
Teresa Ribera, European commissioner for competition and the green transition, welcomed the appointment, saying Whelan would bring “deep experience in European policymaking” to the job and a “strong understanding of how our rules serve citizens, innovation and fair markets”.
Ribera, a Spanish politician who took over the high-profile role as competition chief from Margrethe Vestager, said Whelan’s professionalism will be “essential” to help uphold the independence and equal treatment of companies by Brussels regulators.
Whelan, from Scariff, Co Clare, temporarily took over as von der Leyen’s chief of staff for a number of months in 2024, when her closest adviser, Björn Seibert, took leave to run her political campaign during the European elections.
Whelan had been the commission president’s adviser on digital policy, and had stepped up as her top adviser on economic affairs for a number of months after the German politician secured a second term running the EU executive.
Before joining her team he had been the commission’s director of electronic communications networks and services. Whelan previously worked as head of cabinet for Neelie Kroes, a Dutch politician who served as commissioner for competition and digital policy.
Whelan is a former pupil of Cistercian College Roscrea, Co Tipperary. After school he studied law in Trinity College Dublin, and later worked as a lecturer in public law in the university.
His work in the EU institutions began in the cabinet of advocate general Nial Fennelly in the European Court of Justice in 1995, after which he moved into the commission’s legal services department.
