José Manuel Barroso had little or no say on whom European Union member states sent to join the Commission that he will head from November. But the Portuguese president-designate has done a swift and good job of slotting them into the right jobs.

He has put free-market liberals into key economic posts. He has also taken the risk of giving some big spending jobs to commissioners from new EU member states, hoping to console some of the disappointed, especially from powerful founder members of the EU, with the high-sounding but largely meaningless title of vice-president. Mr Barroso yesterday stressed the equality of the members of his team and his hopes that it would be collegial, a quality lacking in the current EU executive headed by Romano Prodi. It remains to be seen whether France, for instance, will feel very collegial towards a body in which its commissioner has a far smaller job than, say, Lithuania's.