Vestager has been a professional politician since the age of 21, when she was appointed to the central board and executive committee of the SLP and its European Affairs Committee, and shortly afterwards as National
Chairwoman of the Party. In 2001, Vestager was elected to the Danish Parliament, becoming Chairwoman of its Parliamentary Group in 2007. She was appointed Minister of
Education and
Ecclesiastical Affairs in 1998. On 15 June 2007 Vestager secured election as her Party's
parliamentary group leader in the
Folketing, replacing
Marianne Jelved.
Minister for Economic and Interior Affairs of Denmark, 2011–2014 From 2011 until 2014 Vestager served as Minister for Economic and Interior Affairs in the three-party Social Democrat-led
coalition government of
Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Having forced through deep cuts in unemployment benefits of Denmark's generous
social welfare system after the country's economy narrowly escaped
recession in 2012, she was at one point considered by Danish media and pollsters as the most powerful person in government, even above Thorning-Schmidt. In her time in office, chaired the meetings of
economic and finance ministers of the European Union (ECOFIN) during Denmark's
presidency of the Council of Ministers in 2012. In this capacity, she announced that the European Union would cede two of its seats on the board of the
International Monetary Fund to emerging economies under a new power-sharing scheme for international financial institutions. She also worked closely with
Jean-Claude Juncker to salvage Europe's financial sector and forge a
European Banking Union. Between 2011 and 2014, Vestager led Denmark's campaign against
Basel III liquidity rules, arguing in favor of allowing banks to use 75 percent more in
covered bonds to fill liquidity buffers than allowed under Basel III rules; at the time Denmark's $550 billion mortgage-backed covered bond market, part of the country's two-century-old mortgage system, was the world's largest per capita. In 2013 she ruled out slowing down steps toward stricter requirements for
systemically important lenders and reiterated her stance that banks won't get
tax breaks to help them through the transition caused by regulatory reform. In May 2014, Vestager presented a growth package designed to drag Denmark's economy – at the time Scandinavia's weakest – out of its crisis, raising the country's structural output by 6 billion kroner ($1.1 billion) and cut costs for companies by 4 billion kroner in 2020 through 89 measures to improve the business climate and boost employment. In 2013, Vestager held that "[in] our experience it's impossible to pursue Danish interests without being close to the core of Europe. You don't have influence or produce results if you're standing on the sideline."
European Commissioner for Competition, 2014–2019 On 31 August 2014,
Prime Minister Thorning-Schmidt nominated Vestager as Denmark's
EU Commissioner in the
Juncker Commission. Despite her repeated denials of campaigning for the
Environment portfolio, eventually she was designated the
Competition dossier in the
Juncker Commission. On 3 October 2014, she won the
European Parliament's backing following her confirmation hearing. In her confirmation hearings, Vestager said she favored settlement of cases before they come to a final executive judgment, for reduced fines or negotiated concessions from the companies. Within a few months in the office, she brought antitrust charges against
Google; Almunia had initially opened the investigation into Google in 2010, and had reached a settlement deal with Google by 2014 but was unable to convince the European Commission to accept it before his term ended. Vestager inherited Almunia's case but has shown greater desire to continue pursuing Google/Alphabet over the alleged antitrust violations. In January 2015, Vestager ordered
Cyprus Airways to pay back over 65 million euros in illegal
state aid received in 2012 and 2013 as part of a restructuring package; as a consequence, Cyprus suspended operations at its
flag carrier resulting in 550 job losses and reduced competition. In August 2016, after a two–year investigation, Vestager announced
Apple Inc. received illegal tax benefits from
Ireland. The Commission ordered Apple to pay
a fine of €13 billion, plus interest, in unpaid Irish taxes for 2004–2014; the largest tax fine in history. In July 2020, the European General Court struck down the decision as illegal, ruling in favor of Apple. The ruling of the European General Court was later overturned by the European Court of Justice, who definitely confirmed the Commission's decision. As a result of the EU investigation, Apple agreed to re-structure out of its 2004–2014 Irish
BEPS tool, the
Double Irish in Q1 2015; Apple's replacement Irish
BEPS tool, the
CAIA arrangement caused Irish 2015 GDP to rise by 34.4 per cent, and was labelled
Leprechaun economics by Nobel Prize-winning economist,
Paul Krugman in July 2016. In July 2017, a fine of $2.7 billion against Alphabet (formerly Google) was levied based on the European Commission claim that Google breached antitrust rules. This fine was later appealed. and in January 2018, the EU Commission fined
Qualcomm €997 million for allegedly
abusing its market dominance on
LTE baseband chipsets. In July 2018, she fined Alphabet (Google) €4.3 billion for entrenching its dominance in internet search by illegally tying together their service and other mobile apps with Android. On 22 January 2019 she fined Mastercard €570 million for preventing European retailers from shopping around for better payment terms. In March 2019, Vestager ordered Google to pay a fine €1.49 billion for abusive practices in online advertising. Vestager's actions against American companies as competition commissioner received criticism from US President
Donald Trump (who also dubbed her as the EU's "Tax Lady"), stating "''She hates the United States, perhaps worse than any person I've ever met.''" In February 2019, Vestager blocked a merger between the two large European rail companies
Siemens and
Alstom due to serious competition concerns, despite the fact that both the German and French governments had supported the merger.
Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, 2019–2024 and
Stavros Lambrinidis before the inaugural
U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting, 2021 Following the
2019 European Parliament election, Vestager was proposed as
President of the European Commission. Vestager's campaign for the presidency of the
European Commission encountered resistance in France, following her decision to veto the merger between Alstom and Siemens. The prohibition of the merger between two large European industrial companies angered the French president Emmanuel Macron and stood in the way of Vestager's bid for the presidency of the European Commission. In June 2019,
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen proposed that Vestager continue as Denmark's Commissioner for another five years. While, initially thought to become
First Vice-President,
Ursula von der Leyen has since proposed that Vestager,
Frans Timmermans and
Valdis Dombrovskis all serve as Executive Vice-Presidents of the Commission with Vestager having responsibility for a "Europe fit for the Digital Age". In her role as Vice-President of the European Commission, Vestager had public and private disagreements with Commissioner
Thierry Breton, the Frenchman in charge of a major overhaul of the digital rules in the European Union. At a hearing at the
European Parliament on 18 July, Vestager was unable to give a full list of cases for which Scott Morton, which had previously worked as a consultant to several companies, including
GAFAM companies such as
Amazon and
Apple, would have to recuse herself, as the list was still being drawn, illustrating the extensive conflicts of interests of Scott Morton. On the same day, the French President
Emmanuel Macron expressed his concerns regarding the choice of Scott Morton and his surprise that no qualified candidates could be found in Europe. He also noted with consternation Scott Morton's consulting work for the
GAFAM. Scott Morton withdrew her candidacy the following day on 19 July 2023, to the regret to some academics that expressed support for Scott Morton. The failed nomination was labelled Fiona Scott Morton affair by commentators. It called into question the support by some of the European countries of the candidacy of Vestager to the presidency of the
European Investment Bank, announced earlier that year. at their party's new year's meeting 2026 In September 2023, Vestager was released from her duties as Competition Commissioner by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and was replaced by Didier Reynders as Competition Commissioner in the interim. In December 2023,
Nadia Calviño was announced as the new president of the EIB. Vincent van Peteghem, Minister of Finance of Belgium and Chair of EIB's Board of Governors, told reporters that EU finance ministers agreed that "Nadia Calviño will be a strong next president of the EIB, the biggest investment bank in the world.". Vestager subsequently resumed her duties as Competition Commissioner. Following the resignation of
Thierry Breton in September 2024, Vestager assumed his portfolio as
Commissioner for Internal Market, and other related responsibilities, until the end of that
Commission mandate. ==Other activities==