What can the UK expect from Phil Hogan, the EU’s new trade negotiator?

For the second time, Ireland’s Phil Hogan will serve as an EU Commissioner in Brussels, after his appointment was announced on Tuesday by the next President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Whereas Hogan didn’t receive a lot of attention in his previous post – even though he was responsible for the biggest spending role in the EU budget, agriculture – that is certainly about to change. Hogan is about to become responsible for the EU’s trade portfolio, which includes supervising future trade talks between the UK and the EU. What can we expect from him?

In his job as Agriculture Commissioner, Hogan didn’t upset the status quo very much at all. For example, even if he claimed to want to ‘modernise and simplify’ ‘direct payments’ he stopped short of scrapping them altogether. These are EU subsidies that amount to more than €270 billion over seven years, and are paid out to owners of agricultural land, including the Queen, without any requirement to actually produce anything.