by Jitendra Joshi
BRUSSELS, Aug 12 (AFP) - The incoming head of the EU executive unveiled on Thursday what he boasted would be a hard-hitting team to push through economic reform and balance the interests of big and small, old and new EU members.
Among the 24 commissioners who will serve under Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, president-elect of the European Commission, are Britain's Peter Mandelson, a close ally of Prime Minister Tony Blair but a controversial character who has twice had to resign cabinet posts.
After announcing their portfolios, Barroso said they would help Europe face its most pressing challenges.
"I want to put the commission in the driving seat of Europe, a Europe that really benefits our citizens," the polyglot former Portuguese prime minister told a news conference.
"My task was made easier by the high quality of commissioners," he added, noting also an unprecedented number of female members -- eight -- and claiming a fair distribution of jobs to the bloc's 10 newest member states.
"There will be no first- and second-class commissioners," Barroso said.
Provided it is endorsed by the European Parliament in October, considered a formality, the new commission will take office on November 1.
A succession of bruising defeats in battles with member states suffered by the outgoing commission, led by the ineffectual Romano Prodi, has underlined the task facing the new team in the next five years.
But Barroso, a Maoist turned conservative, paid credit to EU countries for giving him a free hand in naming his line-up.
"There is not a strong commission with a weak president," he said, pointing to the experience he can muster from the clutch of ex-prime ministers, foreign ministers and finance ministers on his team.
Barroso named five vice presidents, up from two in the outgoing commission, including one each from the twin motors of European integration -- France and Germany.
Among the vice presidents, Sweden's Margot Wallstroem will be in charge of relations with other EU institutions and communications, a bid to improve the commission's often poor public image and what Barroso called "Euro-apathy".
Barroso played up the economic role of Germany's Guenter Verheugen, another vice-president who moves to a new job of enterprise and industry commissioner from his current enlargement post.
"We must reinvigorate the Lisbon Strategy, which aims to make Europe the world's most competitive economy (by 2010)," said Barroso, who will himself chair a commission taskforce on that agenda.
Among other key appointments, Barroso in a surprise move named Dutch former transport minister Neelie Kroes to the competition portfolio to vet corporate mergers and state handouts to companies.
Verheugen's replacement as enlargement commissioner is Finland's Olli Rehn, who has the highly sensitive job of overseeing EU accession talks with Turkey if EU leaders agree at the end of this year to open negotiations.
Denmark's Mariann Fischer Boel will take over the agriculture department, which through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) oversees nearly half of the EU's entire annual budget.
Poland, largest of the new members, won the regional policy portfolio for Danuta Huebner. Regional aid is second only to the CAP in EU spending.
Spain's Joaquin Almunia retained the economic and monetary affairs job to police the beleaguered budget rules that underpin the euro.
Barroso denied that close political ties enjoyed by many new commissioners, like Mandelson, to their capitals could undermine the commission. "I believe it's possible to love your country and at the same time to believe in Europe," he said.
As trade commissioner, Mandelson will be the bloc's chief negotiator at a critical juncture in the current round of liberalisation talks at the World Trade Organisation.
He is likely to seek to import Britain's free-market zeal to the European Union, but could face strong resistance from France.