Maroš Šefčovič: From Soviet-trained diplomat to the EU's forever commissioner

Euractiv

3 days ago

Ursula von der Leyen and the pro-Russian Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico are at opposite ends of Europe's political spectrum. But they do agree on one thing – backing Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade chief and the bloc's longest-serving commissioner.
'We should congratulate him,' Fico wrote on Facebook after Šefčovič sealed a trade deal with the United States. Von der Leyen was equally effusive, thanking the Slovak for his 'tireless work and skilful steer,' after 10 trips to Washington.
With 15% tariffs set to be imposed on the EU on Friday, Šefčovič remains at the centre of negotiations to flesh out the deal with Donald Trump's negotiators Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer.
'This is the toughest challenge I have faced,' Šefčovič told Euractiv in emailed comments. 'I feel a huge responsibility for millions of jobs and trillions in trade. I am convinced a deal is better than a trade war."
To understand what drives him, and his improbable journey to Brussels from an elite Soviet diplomatic school, Euractiv spoke to more than 15 people who know him.
Despite having spent more than two decades in the EU bubble, surprisingly little is known about his personal life.
Šefčovič, who just turned 59, is known as a good-humoured father-of-three and loyal husband, who enjoys coffee, likes his pets, loves volleyball, and works out in the Commission's gym, alongside von der Leyen's bodyguards. He also sometimes does imitations of MEPs for his colleagues.
One of the few glimpses into his life beyond politics came in 2019, when a fire broke out in his Brussels apartment, and his son, also named Maroš, narrowly escaped. Behind the curtain Šefčovič grew up in a suburb of Bratislava, then part of Czechoslovakia, with a father who was an electrical engineer and a mother who worked as an administrator for the postal service.
Their family home was just three kilometres from the Iron Curtain, which his father predicted would stand forever.
"Back in my student days, my biggest dream was simply to cross the Iron Curtain and visit Austria," Šefčovič said in the emailed comments. "I never imagined we would join the EU or that I would serve so long in its key institutions."
Between 1985 and 1990, Šefčovič studied diplomacy at MGIMO, a prestigious university in Moscow run by the Soviet foreign ministry and the alma mater of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Studying at MGIMO during Gorbachev's time – when perestroika and glasnost now sound archaic – gave us young students hope for a more open future," Šefčovič said. He is a fluent Russian speaker.
That skill would later serve him well in EU policies, including in tense negotiations over gas deals between Ukraine and Russia before Moscow launched an all-out invasion on its neighbour in 2022.
"He used this knowledge of the Russian mentality for the EU's interests,' said a senior European diplomat.
Some in Slovakia, though, still view MGIMO alumni with suspicion. Like Fico, Šefčovič was a member of the communist party in his youth.
But if he was a communist in the 80s, by the 90s, he was being lectured by capitalist luminary Milton Friedman and taught by Condoleezza Rice at Stanford University. 'He was always pro-European, despite his Moscow pedigree,' said a second diplomat who has long known Šefčovič.
His diplomatic career took him across continents, with diplomatic postings in Zimbabwe, Canada, and Brussels, and he served as Slovakia's ambassador to Israel at the age of 32.
By 2004, he was back in Brussels as his country's ambassador to the EU. Five years later, he joined the European Commission, and hasn't left since.
His EU career has stretched across generations, having served as a commissioner alongside both Siim Kallas, and his daughter Kaja Kallas, who is now the bloc's top diplomat. Mr Fix It Immaculately dressed, and eschewing the media spotlight, Šefčovič has cultivated a "Mr Fix It" persona in Brussels.
Three European Commission presidents have relied on him to negotiate the thorniest of dossiers, from reforming the internal workings of the institution to hammering out a gas transit deal between Ukraine and Russia, and Swiss relations.
'He always knows his shit, from A to Z,' said Katarína Roth Neveďalová, a Slovak MEP from Fico's populist Smer party. British conservative politician Michael Gove dubbed him the 'sausage king,' for his mastery of the Northern Ireland protocol during the Brexit talks.
Calm under pressure, his risk aversion is perhaps a key to his longevity. A Commission insider who saw him operating up close said: 'He's kind of an eel, swimming through, not getting into any fights.'
'He's not a homo politicus, he's always been a very good and very decent bureaucrat,' said the diplomat quoted above, who has long known him.
But Šefčovič hasn't always stayed in technocratic mode
Back in 2019, he made the explicitly political move to campaign to be president of Slovakia, with the support of Fico's party, ultimately losing to liberal Zuzana Čaputová.
A different Šefčovič emerged on the campaign trail: he pivoted to a more socially conservative line that would appeal to Smer's voters, saying he was against adoption by homosexual couples, and inviting the cameras in to show his wife Helena cooking a schnitzel for him.
'I hated that, because he's not like that,' said the diplomat who's long known Šefčovič. 'He's of a very liberal background; he's got nothing to do with conservatism,' the person said.
'That was his low point in Slovak politics,' said Milan Nič, a senior fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, who said Šefčovič made a 'Faustian bargain' with Fico, in which Šefčovič campaigned in exchange for another nomination to the Commission in 2019.
Šefčovič, for his part, disputes that. 'I did not enter the presidential race to bargain for another position,' he said in an email. Maroš in the middle Šefčovič has so far managed to balance his loyalties to Brussels and Bratislava, to von der Leyen and Fico.
Though not a member of Smer himself, Šefčovič is politically tied to Fico, who has nominated him multiple times for the top job in Brussels.
'I think the main reason why he was nominated by Fico so many times is that he's never opposed him in anything,' said a former Slovak diplomat.
But Fico's stance on Ukraine has partly isolated his commissioner in Brussels.
Days after Fico won the 2023 Slovak election, having campaigned to stop sending weapons to Kyiv, MEPs grilled Šefčovič on his views on the war, as he prepared to take on the Green Deal portfolio.
'He was a bit annoyed because of how much he has done with Ukraine, that they would doubt him,' said an EU official.
He described Fico as a 'friend' in the wake of an assassination attempt in May 2024, but those who know them characterise their relationship as mainly professional. "With Prime Minister Robert Fico, we communicate, talk openly and respect each other's roles," he replied by email.
In Brussels, where Fico's Smer is now suspended from the wider Socialist family, Šefčovič remains firmly in von der Leyen's pro-European camp. 'He got this portfolio because he's very close and loyal to von der Leyen. He's basically her man, her fixer,' said Milan Nič, the think-tanker.
In April 2027, Šefčovič will become the longest-serving commissioner in history. "I believe in serving in public office as long as I can make a difference," said Šefčovič by email.
As he hammers out a final joint declaration of the new EU-US trade deal with his American counterparts, Šefčovič is also trying to sell the agreement as a pragmatic success, amid criticism from EU capitals and experts who say the EU should have played it tougher.
"It would be easy to seek popularity by taking a hard line," he said. "But that risks damaging transatlantic relations for a generation."
Thomas Møller-Nielsen and Natália Silénska contributed reporting.
(mm, jp)