Violeta Bulc Date of Birth: 24/01/1964 Commissioner for Commissioner

Last updated: 11/11/2014

Nationality: Slovenia European Group: ALDE Violeta Bulc Date of Birth: 24/01/1964 Commissioner for Commissioner

Transport profile

@violeta

Violeta Bulc came to be nominated for Commissioner for Transport for the Juncker Commission following the resignation of Slovenia's original nominee, Alenka Bratušek, after her disastrous confirmation hearing performance and general lack of political support. Ms Bulc is a liberal and her national party, the Party of Miro Cerar, is affiliated to ALDE.

Ms Bulc’s nomination was not without controversy. Allegedly both Slovenian coalition parties were opposed to the choice of Ms Bulc, while political groups in Brussels favoured the appointment of S&D MEP Tanja Fajon. Most controversially, Prime Minister Miro Cerar took the vote on her nomination with three ministers absent, with an outcome of six in favour and seven against. However, following the vote Mr Cerar reported that nine votes were in favour, due to a Slovenian law which states that when a minister is absent for a vote, their votes are considered as in favour.

While lacking experience in transport affairs, Ms Bulc impressed MEPs during her hearing with her enthusiasm and ability to provide frank and detailed answers to questions on topics including the potential of Intelligent Transport Systems and cuts to EU emissions.

Businesswoman and entrepreneur

Ms Bulc graduated from the University of Ljubljana with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Informatics. She followed up her undergraduate study by travelling to the USA, where she gained a Master of Science in Information Technology from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. Most recently, Ms Bulc has completed an MBA from the Bled School of Management in Slovenia.

The business acumen gained through her studies seemingly did well to prepare Ms Bulc for a successful career in the telecommunications sector and as an entrepreneur. She has a strong background in telecommunications, beginning in 1991 when she was an expert for wide-area networks performance analyses at DHL System in the USA and then from 1994 for Telekom Slovenije, for whom Ms Bulc worked first as Manager of Institutional Traffic, and then as a Director of Carrier Business.

Ms Bulc’s entrepreneurship came to the fore in 2000 with the establishment of her own company, Vibacom, for which she is still owner and CEO. She is also co-founder and executive vice-president of Telemach, one of Slovenia's top telecoms companies.

Political career

Ms Bulc is still a relatively fresh face on the political scene, both at the European and the domestic level, and the Slovenian Commissioner for Transport has experienced a rapid rise to her current political post.

Prior to her nomination Ms Bulc was Minister without Portfolio responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion in the government of Prime Minister Miro Cerar, a post that Ms Bulc was only appointed to a mere three weeks before being nominated as Commissioner-designate.

While her experience of political office is slim, Ms Bulc is not without experience at the European level following a number of positions and posts held in various advisory bodies and task forces. This started in 2003, when Ms Bulc became a counsellor to the MFA Working Group on the European Convention. Between 2004 and 2007, she was the representative of Slovenia in the Advisory Group for ICT at the European Commission, where she advised Member States on the development of the Eurasian Economic Unions. Ms Bulc has also been a member of the European Commission group on the e-Europe action and strategic plans, which promote internet provision and usage, for 2012 and 2020.

She has held numerous other positions since 2010, including Member of the Council for an innovation society in the National Council of Slovenia (2010-12), coordinator of a series of workshops for the EU nuclear power plant strategy (2012-14), and visiting lecturer at MCI Innsbruck and the University of Ljubljana. Throughout her career, Ms Bulc has impressed with her passion for entrepreneurship and general enthusiasm for her work, something which most recently resulted in the student body of DOBA University voting to name her “lecturer of the year.”

Such enthusiasm, coupled with experience in a number of infrastructure projects through her various posts in the telecommunications sector, should provide Ms Bulc with a good foundation upon which to build in her new role as Transport Commissioner.

Violeta Bulc on transport

However, Ms Bulc does not come to her new role with a great deal of experience in transport policy and as such has made few comments on transport issues during her career.

While displaying keen enthusiasm for EU transport policy, Ms Bulc made few bold statements during her confirmation hearing, other than expressing a particular interest in the prevention of social dumping in the transport sector. In general, Ms Bulc expressed support for initiatives adopted by her predecessors, in particular lauding the TEN-T initiative and the “use it or lose it” principle of the Connecting Europe Facility, and reiterated the need to improve existing measures. Ms Bulc strongly rejected the “excessive” passing of legislation, whilst stressing she would work with actors at all levels, both public and private.

Since taking office on 1 November, Ms Bulc has given one speech on transport policy, choosing to speak on the implementation of the Single European Sky (SESII+) at an Italian Presidency summit dedicated to the topic. Similarly to her predecessor, Ms Bulc emphasised the economic and practical gains to be made through the timely implementation of SESII, and called for progress on the creation of Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs). Ms Bulc stated that aviation “is an enabler for innovation, an energiser for our economy, and a boost to global competiveness.”

While Ms Bulc’s statements on SESII+ largely reflect those of her predecessor Siim Kallas, and while the topic of her first speech was mainly dictated by the calendar of the Italian Presidency, it should

Personal Life

Ms Bulc has quite a vibrant and varied array of interests outside of business and politics. Well- reported following her nomination as Slovenia’s Commissioner, Ms Bulc’s training in Scotland and Peru as a shaman is one of the more unusual pastimes claimed by members of the Juncker Commission. In addition, during her time in the US, Ms Bulc also achieved a black belt in Tae Kwan Do and Hap Ki Do.

In between her various business, political, and private commitments, Ms Bulc has also found the time to publish two books: 'The Magic of Contribution' (2013) and 'Ritmi poslovne evolucije' (Rhythms of the business evolution) (2006). Ms Bulc additionally runs her own blog, although it is yet to be seen whether she will continue to update it while serving in the Juncker Commission.

Ms Bulc is a mother to two children, and alongside her native tongue of Slovenian speaks English, Croatian and Serbian.