Von der Leyen takes new commissioners out for team-building retreat

President-elect has invited her team for an away day outside Brussels.

The invitation to join Brussels’ most exclusive new dinner club said “dress code: casual.”

Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen will take out her new team for a cozying-up and team-building “seminar” Wednesday night, two Commission officials told POLITICO.

Von der Leyen has invited the commissioners-designate for an away day of about 24 hours to a hotel outside Brussels, starting in the evening — it’s meant to be “an opportunity to get to know each other in private,” said one official. The plan is to create “a nice atmosphere.”

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It’s the first get-together of the new class of European commissioners, which von der Leyen presented on Tuesday.

A cozy atmosphere might be helpful to have a drink or two with other lucky winners of the personnel tableau von der Leyen kept close until telling people “on relatively short notice,” as future Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.

It might also help some members to overcome possible disappointments over the portfolio they were given, the directorates general they will oversee or not, or the unexpected promotion of a contender for glory.

It might also help to familiarize with the job titles of other commissioners-designate — and what exactly they  mean — and to understand how von der Leyen wants them to work together: The seminar will also be an opportunity for von der Leyen to tell her team about her expectations, according to the officials.

It’s about “rules for the composition of cabinets and how they should cooperate,” said one official, as well as about new “working arrangements.”

Dombrovskis said the latter “are not entirely the same as in the current Commission.” Ever the optimist, he added that “probably some lessons learned might have been incorporated” in the new set-up.

Finally, the seminar “will give an outlook on the procedures of the hearings in the European Parliament,” said one official. It’s the first opportunity for a get-together — and it could be the last for some commissioners-designate: There might be trouble ahead for some, after all.