In 1999, having served for 10 years in the Luxembourg Parliament and for 10 years in the European Parliament, she became European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. In her first term she pushed through the Erasmus World programme, expanding the co-operation between universities and the exchange of students worldwide. She also strengthened the MEDIA programme in the interest of the  European films industry.

In 2004, she became EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, winning a major battle against telecom companies by capping mobile roaming charges by 70%. She was instrumental in the reform of the European telecom sector, opening the internal market to competition. In that period, she also reformed the European research area, reinforcing the technological research platforms.

In 2010, she became first Vice-President and EU Commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. She put in place a true EU Justice policy, launching a series of ground-breaking proposals in the field of civil, commercial, consumer, and criminal law, creating thus the basis for a European area of justice. She initiated the chapter “Justice for growth”, enabling both businesses and consumers to benefit fully from their rights in the European single market. This chapter includes consumer rights, cross border recovery of debts, cross border recognition of documents, women on boards, sales law, and the reform of the EU data protection rules. (GDPR).

Viviane Reding also created the basis for a “fundamental rights culture” across the European institutions and initiated a new EU framework to strengthen the rule of law. In order to reach out to the general public, she launched the Europe-wide “Citizen Dialogue” – series, ahead of the EU-Elections.

She was awarded numerous national, European distinctions as well as a number of “Doctor Honoris Causa” degrees by universities. She has published many articles, mainly on the reform of European Institutions, on geopolitical relations, data protection, the  Digital Single Market as well as on economic and financial governance.

She is a regular  “All Stars” speaker at the famous DLD Digital Conference.