It had been a long time coming: on Tuesday afternoon the Dutch government finally nominated Neelie Kroes for the EU Commission. For Kroes (68) it means she will be representing the Netherlands in Brussels for another five years, albeit in a diminished capacity: she will be put in charge of ICT and telecom in the new Commission.

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende tried to put a positive spin on the news on Tuesday evening. "She will have a portfolio that's important for the future of Europe; she will be dealing with e-commerce, digitalisation, mobile telephony, broadband, all kinds of things that have to do with the new technological reality," he told public broadcaster NOS.

But it cannot be denied that ICT and telecom would be a step down for Kroes, who for the past five years has been the scourge of multinationals like Microsoft, Intel, E.on or GDF Suez. She was the 'cartel-buster', imposing billions of euros in fines on some of the biggest companies in the world for distorting the free market. Her tough approach to the financial crisis earned her the nicknames 'Steely Neelie' (a reference to Margaret Thatcher's 'Iron Lady') and the 'slayer of banks'. She also stood her ground against top politicians like German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos.

Her predecessor on what is now called information society and media, Viviane Reding from Luxembourg, has a much lower profile. Her main claim to fame is that she forced the mobile telephone companies to lower their sometimes exorbitant rates for roaming within the EU.

So is this really the 'heavy portfolio' that Balkenende has been saying the Netherlands wanted from Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso? "ICT? That certainly isn't a heavy portfolio," said Belgian professor and EU expert Hendrik Vos. Kroes will also be vice-president of the Commission, but according to Vos "that's little more than an honorary title. It doesn't amount too much in practice."

Kroes' own party, the right-wing liberal VVD, disagrees. As vice-president Kroes "will be coordinating an important part of the Commission's activities", said the leader of the VVD in the European parliament, Hans van Baalen. "That was an offer the Dutch government just couldn't refuse."

Still, within the context of Dutch politics the fact that Kroes gets to stay in Brussels at all is a victory for her. Her party is currently in the opposition, and the Christian Democrats and Labour, the main partners in the ruling coalition, initially wanted one of their own to replace Kroes in the Commission.

Earlier this month Kroes told a Dutch political TV show she feared "party politics" stood in the way of her getting a second term in Brussels. It was a smart move because it led to a political and media campaign in support of Kroes. It also put Balkenende before a tough choice: was he really prepared to go against public opinion and nominate someone from his own ranks, even if this resulted in the Netherlands being given a less important portfolio? In the end he went with Kroes.