European Commissioner Viviane Reding stopped during the European People’s Party Congress in Bonn, Germany last month to be interviewed by New Europe about the change in how the former communication directorate would be handle, and the new commission that will be in place until 2014, overseeing the workings of the Lisbon Treaty that gives the EU a mandate to carry out a new set of rules and regulations for its 27 Member States. She had some immediate thoughts on her workload and ideas for Europe.

Commissioner with your new portfolio you got quite a work load. Does this require any challenge for you?

It is a real challenge because it is for the first time that the citizenships are in the hand of one Commissioner. And it is also for the first time that this Commissioner can do something because now in the Commission we do have the instruments. Before all decisions, for instance for judges, for human rights, for fundamental rights of the citizens, were in the hands of the member states, and there had to be unanimous decision by the Council of Ministers. Now it is in the hands of the proposal of the Commissioner with majority in the Council and co-decision by the European Parliament. So I am very confident that finally the citizenship part of our policies will be put in practice.

You also inherited communication which is now moving more into the citizenship. How do you intend to build on the work of Commissioner Margot Wallstrom?

I believe that communication is not a policy. Communication is a tool. And we have to use this tool in order to tell the stories. You cannot do good communication if you don’t have a good story to tell. So we politicians must create good stories, have a clear vision of where we want to lead this European Union, and then tell it to the citizens. So communications will be a tool to tell good stories we politicians have put into practice.

What is your vision for Europe? Where would you like to see Europe going? Because now you’ve got center-right in charge, you’ve got a new Commission, you’re no longer naval gazing all the treaties. Everything could be a set forward for the most exciting years in the European Union we’ve seen. Is it true?

I am sure they are going to be very exciting years. A lot has changed since December 1 with the new Lisbon Treaty. Because before that Europe was a common market, an internal market where finance and economy stood in the first place. Now, in the beginning of the Treaty it is not the market, it is the citizen. So we have to create this continent where the citizen feels at home, where the citizen understands that his rights, his aspirations, his worries are taken seriously that he gets an answer to this. So a completely new area, new policy starts, and I am very proud that the president has given me these tasks to do that. I hope now that the European Parliament will agree with my policies and help me in the next coming years to go ahead to create Europe of the citizens.

Have you got any ideas in mind where you would like to look taking these briefs ahead of time?

There are going to be very concrete actions which are all in a pipeline already. I give you one example, very simple one, the mixed marriages: a German has married a Greek and they are living together in Belgium. Then they have a divorce. What happens with the children? Where are the children going? What law applies to this divorce to the good of the children afterwards? All this has to be clarified at the European level so that these matrimonial questions will not be headache anymore but that people will get concrete solutions and the children are treated for the better of children.

Viviane Reding is outgoing European Commissioner for Information, Society and Media and designated to be Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. She is from Luxembourg, was a Member of the European Parliament from 1989-99 and previously worked as a journalist