Duitsland en Frankrijk lobbyen voor topposities in nieuwe Europese Commissie (en)

With a new Commission President now in place, the wrangling has already begun over which countries should get the plum posts in the new College.

José Manuel Durao Barroso, who was officially appointed as the new leader of the European Commission, insisted last night (29 June) that he would not be bullied when it comes to handing out jobs.

"It's my responsibility and only my responsibility", he said, adding that he could not guarantee any post to any country.

But, since the big countries lose their second commissioner after enlargement, they will be pushing hard to secure the important and influential posts and some of the bigger ones appear to be sewn up already.

France and Germany in particular are expecting big jobs from the Barroso commission in return for supporting him as President.

Super Commissioner for Germany

It is widely expected in Brussels circles that Germany will receive the post of "super commissioner", responsible for industrial and economic policy and that Günter Verheugen, currently EU enlargement commissioner, will take the job.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said last week that Germany should have "a special responsibility for economic policy" in the new Commission.

But this appointment has not met with universal approval. Frits Bolkestein, now commissioner for the internal market, has recently said, "the Germans want a poodle there which listens well to Berlin".

For their part, Paris is understood to covet the powerful role of competition policy, but, as French commissioner Jacques Barrot has weak English, he may be appointed to the internal market instead, according to Le Monde.

The irony of appointing a German to run economic policy when Germany has one of the weakest growth rates in the EU and a Frenchman to run competition policy when Paris is accused of smashing EU competition law by state bail-outs of companies, has not been lost on many in Brussels.

The UK and Poland are also said to be pushing for economic portfolios, with daily Polish paper Rzeczpospolita saying that Warsaw was also lobbying to have their commissioner Danuta Huebner made Vice-President of the new Commission.

New Commission, new structure?

Another headache for Mr Barroso as he takes up his place at Brussels' top table is how to run a Commission of 25.

One widely proposed plan is that commissioners should work in "clusters" each under the lead of a Vice-President. This could, for example, bring together the commissioners for trade, external relations and humanitarian aid under the banner of "foreign affairs".

But another problem for the new President is that there are now more commissioners than jobs after enlargement (25 commissioners to fill the 20 posts currently available). Therefore, Mr Barroso may need to separate some jobs. For instance, transport and energy are now lumped together, as are agriculture and fisheries.

What happens next?

Technically, the new Commission President is not supposed to start building his team until he is officially "cleared" himself by the European Parliament, which meets to discuss him in the week beginning 19 July.

Assuming he is approved, he has until the end of July or beginning of August to announce his appointments whereupon the successful candidates are grilled by the European Parliament individually during the weeks of 27 September to 1 October and 4 to 8 October.

Following individual hearings by parliamentary committees, the vote of approval on the entire College of Commissioners is scheduled for the parliament session of 25-28 October in Strasbourg.

And so the new commissioners should be settling in to their desks on 1 November.