Players in the new team

In the spotlight: Barroso presents his choices to the press. Photograph: European Communities 2009

José Manuel Barroso was smiling when he met journalists on November 27 to announce the line-up of the new European Commission. He had good reason to be happy after an autumn in which he secured a second term as Commission president, EU leaders chose a European Council president and foreign affairs chief who are unlikely to overshadow him, and ratification of the Lisbon Treaty made for a smooth, if somewhat delayed, formation of the new EU executive.

“This team is a perfect blend of experience and new thinking. We have a European programme, and now we have a European team,” Barroso said.

His team does, indeed, have a balanced look in terms of the nominees’ political leanings and the distribution of posts between large and small member states. Political groups in the European Parliament were by and large appeased and the team includes nine women, one more than in the last Commission – just enough to answer his call for more females in top jobs.

Barroso also feels he can trust men rewarded for their loyalty in the last Commission with two plumb economic posts which will give them important roles in his new team, the key goal of which is to revive the European economy.

Finland’s Olli Rehn, 47, brings to the economic and monetary affairs portfolio plenty of patience and no little skill at consensus-building, proven many times as enlargement commissioner. Although he has little economic policymaking experience, his profile otherwise fits the bill for a job in which he will oversee efforts to reduce budget deficits and agree when to remove the fiscal measures used to prop up the economy during the credit crunch.

“I was delighted when I heard his name. He is an extremely intelligent guy, not a macro-economist, but he has exactly the right instincts of fiscal discipline and averting macroeconomic imbalances in the EU,” says one senior EU economic policymaker. “He is a superb negotiator which will be very good for talks in the G20.”

Spaniard Joaquin Almunia, 61, brings similar qualities to the competition brief, in which he faces a tough but vital task guarding against protectionism and defending the EU’s single market, which has been under threat during the economic crisis.

By appointing such seasoned and trusted allies, Barroso has underlined the importance he attaches to shoring up the single market and securing solid growth in his second five-year term. “Commissioner Almunia, as we all know, has been one of the best commissioners in the last five years,” he said.

With Barroso and Catherine Ashton, the new high representative for foreign and security policy, Rehn and Almunia will form a top-level team that should be good at securing compromise. They should be able to work smoothly with Herman Van Rompuy, the new president of the European Council, who proved himself a good consensus-builder in a difficult environment when overseeing a fragile coalition government in Belgium.

These appointments also provide the perfect ingredients for Barroso to reinforce his own position at the heart of the Union. If former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had been appointed EU president, and even if British Foreign Secretary David Miliband had become foreign affairs chief, it would probably have been much harder for Barroso to grab centre stage. He can hardly have dreamed his position would be this strong last summer, when his re-election was seemingly hanging in the balance.

The European Parliament is sure to flex its muscles in the approval hearings in January, but the 27-person team is likely to remain largely intact, even though eyebrows have been raised by the nomination of Bulgaria’s Rumiana Jeleva as commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, and by the choice of the agriculture portfolio for Romanian Dacian Ciolos. In the latter case, it is more the choice of portfolio than the candidate that is being questioned.

More controversial is the selection of former French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, 59, as internal market commissioner with responsibilities for the planned overhaul of financial regulations. Some financiers and politicians in London, Europe’s largest financial centre, fear Barnier will push for stricter regulation at the expense of the City and that Paris will seek revenge on the Anglo-Saxon economic model that it blames for the global economic meltdown.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy did little to dispel this impression in the days after the commissioners were nominated. At a time when diplomacy might have been expected, he gloated over what he called France’s victory in securing the post at Britain’s expense. There were also nods and winks from Paris over the appointment of Ciolos as agriculture commissioner because he studied in France. And the appointment of a Pole – Janusz Lewandowski – as budget commissioner could also be seen as a boost for Paris before talks on the EU budget, when spending on farm subsidies could come under threat. Both Poland and France are big beneficiaries of these subsidies.

“Do you know what it means for me to see for the first time in 50 years a French European commissioner in charge of the internal market, including financial services, including the City?” Sarkozy said of Barnier’s nomination.

“I want the world to see the victory of the European model, which has nothing to do with the excesses of financial capitalism,” he said.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling swiftly hit back in a letter to The Times that said Barnier and Barroso must be “mindful that Europe is not competing with itself, but striving for global excellence”.

“We must resist measures, however superficially alluring, that could undermine the effective functioning of our cherished single market,” he wrote.

But Darling could do little to hide the fact that Britain, and particularly Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had lost out to France in the horse-trading over the top jobs. Not only did Brown lose face over his insistence almost to the bitter end that Blair should become EU president, but he played little part in fellow Briton Ashton’s selection as foreign affairs high representative. European diplomats say she won that job largely because of pressure by the European Socialist group which forced Brown to back down over Blair and was the driving force behind Ashton’s candidacy.

It remains to be seen whether Barnier really proves as big a threat as some Britons fear. The framework of much of the revamp of financial regulation to prevent another global economic crisis is already being shaped and the EU has already signalled clearly that the new rules will be tough, certainly tougher than some people in London would want. The appointment of Jonathan Faull, a senior British EU civil servant, as director-general under Barnier, is intended to ease concern in London, and the Frenchman may find himself following Commission policy more than orders from Paris.

Another, somewhat quieter, winner in the Commission reshuffle was Belgium. Former Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht is giving up responsibility for development and humanitarian aid to become trade commissioner, another important and high-profile job in Barroso’s team. This is all the more galling for London because Belgium was not only seen to oppose Tony Blair as European Council president but then secured the job for itself.

Other striking appointments in the new Commission include Denmark’s Connie Hedegaard as climate action commissioner and Ireland’s Maire Geoghegan-Quinn as research and innovation commissioner. Although not frontline economic posts, they were created by Barroso to show his intention to ensure the EU is at the vanguard of efforts to combat the effects of global warming and to do more in research and development to help business and create jobs. He will continue to highlight these goals throughout his second term, partly because of the belief that they reflect what European citizens want. This could ensure these two commissioners can grab their fair share of the limelight.

Plenty of potential pitfalls and problems lie ahead. The first is, once again, highlighted by Sarkozy. The EU’s efforts to project itself as a stronger player on the world stage are to an extent dependent on unity in its ranks and on member states putting European interests above their own, so petty rivalries such as those between Paris and London have to be overcome if the EU is to work smoothly. Successful work on shaking up the EU’s budget will be extremely difficult if countries such as Britain and France are unable to put aside their differences. So, too, will further progress on financial regulation, one of the initial main tasks the Commission faces.

“If we can get our own act together, the rest of the world will take notice because we are a pretty big boy,” says Daniel Gros of the Centre for European Policy Studies, a Brussels-based think-tank. But he adds: “There is a lack of unity and a small-country complex where leaders still think in national rather than global terms and are not willing to abdicate their responsibilities to an EU body which would not have these problems.”

Another potential stumbling block is the overriding need to revive the economy, which will take priority over all else and could therefore delay efforts in other areas. Failure to guide Europe safely out of the crisis and to solid growth would undermine efforts on other important projects.

The Commission also has to tread carefully in its relationship with the European Parliament now that the assembly’s powers have increased under the Lisbon Treaty. Any squabbles and territorial battles will augur badly for passage of legislation, some of it intended to help strengthen Europe after the economic crisis and to help prevent another one. The new Commission can be expected from the very start to go to great lengths to build trust and links with the various parliamentary groups.

Making clear the Parliament’s intention to flex its muscles in the January hearings, Martin Schulz, leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, has promised “serious tests of the nominees and their ambitions for Europe, and we will not pre-judge their outcome”. Even though most commissioners are likely to secure their jobs, there is no doubt Barroso and his team will be bending over backwards to show their respect for the Parliament at every turn.

The Commission also faces challenges over enlargement during its new term and some tough decisions on Ankara’s accession bid. Croatia is likely to join the bloc next and Iceland could soon win approval to start formal accession negotiations, but Turkey’s efforts are faltering, particularly because of hostility in France and Germany. Alienating Ankara would be a potentially costly move in terms of political influence and trade, though opponents of Turkey’s accession say economic ties could be developed even if it remained outside the bloc.

Several non-EU diplomats based in Brussels were bemused by the Union’s obsession with internal matters for most of the autumn – and the selection of leaders who will struggle to open doors or “stop traffic” in foreign capitals.

So for all its strengths, the new Commission has a lot to prove both inside and outside the EU’s borders. Barroso has made clear he wants to address concerns that ordinary people feel the EU is out of touch. But many are sure to have felt they had no involvement in his re-election, the choice of Ashton and Van Rompuy and the nominations to the new Commission. More worrying for him, many may not even care. This is an issue he needs to address.