Barroso II, another hand of Dieu

As usual, the ‘large’ member states have helped themselves to the most influential positions and those with the largest budgets (Trade, Internal Market, Competition, Agriculture). The Daily Telegraph comments that, "At every turn in the protracted bout of horse-trading that is the commission-building process, the British Government has been outwitted and out-manoeuvred. (…) [Catherine Ashton’s] appointment came at an extraordinarily high price, for it meant the UK could not take one of the crucial economic portfolios in the commission. And it gave Mr Sarkozy the leverage he needed to secure for his candidate the most important of those, the internal market. The potential damage this will cause cannot be overstated. Mr Barbier is an interventionist (as a former French farm minister, how could he be otherwise?). He is antipathetic to the free-market, Anglo-Saxon economic model and appears determined to see the EU's banks regulated by a meddlesome Brussels."

Dziennik Gazeta Prawna is also quick to acknowledge that France has pulled off a “famous victory” because “Michel Barnier’s decisions will influence the profits and losses of millions of Europeans”. His nomination also represents “a blow to Anglo-American free market policies, whose advocates occupied key posts in the last Commission”. What’s more, “José Manuel Barroso withstood pressure from London to take responsibility for financial services away from Barnier, and this has given him even greater power”.

Dacian Ciolos, the French European commissioner

France appears to have skilfully got what it wanted, including the all-important Agriculture post which has gone to the Romanian Dacian Ciolos: “Ciolos becomes French European Commissioner” runs the headline in Jurnalul National, which goes on to note that the British press is up in arms at his appointment, condemning it as a “stitch-up”. The Bucharest daily says that his marriage to a Frenchwoman and his studies in Rennes and Montpellier prove instead that he is “a true European”. Their friends at România Libra emphasise that “the appointment of Ciolos as Agriculture Commissioner has unleashed expectations in Romania that it will soon be raining money, but it is raining criticism in Europe due to France’s support for his nomination.” Another Bucharest daily, Gândul, adds that “his task will be exceedingly difficult” because “he will have to find common ground between the conflicting interests of France and England”.

Another very influential position, that of Competition Commissioner, has gone to Joaquín Almunia, who has also become Vice-President of the Commission. El País describes him as the “the Union’s new strongman” and Competition’s de facto responsibility for European industrial policy has made this “the most powerful job in the Commission at a time of economic and financial crisis”.

Finally to the Czech Republic, where Hospodářské Novinyis amazed that, despite President Václav Klaus’ obstruction tactics during the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, Prague still managed to obtain the “relatively important” post of Commissioner for Enlargement for the diplomat and former European affairs minister Štefan Füle. One of the tasks that awaits him is to “prepare the countries within the Eastern Partnership to hear that they won’t be joining the Union anytime soon”. The Prague daily remarks that enlargement hasn’t been the driving force behind European integration for ten years or so now.