Michael McGrath

Democracy and the rule of law

Michael McGrath’s task is to uphold and strengthen our core values and principles that underpin our Union, our societies and our economies. He works to ensure that citizens can have confidence in state power being exercised fairly and objectively.

He is responsible for:

• putting in place a new European Democracy Shield, including the fight against disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference 
• working to preserve the fairness and integrity of elections, and protect the safety of political candidates
• implementing and putting forward proposals to further support and protect independent media and journalists
• building a Civil Society Platform to strengthen regular civil dialogue and protect civil society, activists and human rights defenders
• leading the work on the Rule of Law Report, adding a single market dimension and including further enlargement countries
• ensuring effective enforcement where appropriate and support a reinforced application of the Article 7 Mechanism
• ensuring that EU budget instruments are always implemented in a way that is fully consistent with the respect of the rule of law and fundamental rights
• developing a clear EU approach to anti-corruption, ensuring that EU funding can support national measures to fight corruption
• reporting annually on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights 

Read more about the EU’s commitment to protect democracy and uphold the rule of law.  

Justice and consumer protection

Michael McGrath is also in charge of justice and consumer protection. His task is to ensure that rights are defended, corruption is punished, and contracts are enforced.

He is responsible for: 

• leading the work to build an EU-wide legal status, taking the form of a 28th regime, to allow companies to benefit from a simpler and harmonised set of rules
• preparing the next Consumer Agenda 2025-2030, proposing actions to protect consumers in the single market when buying goods or services and implementing product safety policies
• developing a Digital Fairness Act to tackle unethical techniques and commercial practices, especially when consumer vulnerabilities are exploited for commercial purposes
• ensuring full enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation while checking it stays up to date, and promoting trusted data flows with international partners
• working on strengthening the European Arrest Warrant to allow judicial authorities to work more closely and to step cooperation between Europol and Eurojust

Read more about the EU’s justice and consumer policies.

Speeches will be available soon.

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Meetings and missions

As part of the Commission's commitment to transparency, Commissioners and their Cabinet members publish information on and minutes of all meetings they hold with interest representatives. Every two months, they also publish an overview of mission expenses.

• Meetings with Commissioner McGrath
• Meetings with Commissioner McGrath's Cabinet members
• Missions of Commissioner McGrath

European Parliament hearings

Read Commissioner McGrath's answers to the European Parliament questionnaire.

Declaration of interests

In line with the Commission's Code of Conduct for Members of the Commission, each Member of the Commission publishes a declaration of interests. The declarations of the Commissioners-designate can be found on the European Parliament’s website, where they were published before the confirmation hearings of the Commissioners. 

The declarations of interests of the new Members of the Commission will be updated and published here at the beginning of 2025 in line with Article 3 of the Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission. Machine-readable versions of all declarations will also be made available in line with the requirements of the Code of Conduct. The declarations of interests follow the requirements set out in Article 3 and Annex 1 of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners.

Documents