It is a truth universally acknowledged that Juncker must give decent portfolios to at least some of the eight women that have been nominated to the college in addition to Federica Mogherini, the foreign policy chief.  Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Kristalina Georgieva, Cecilia Malmström and Margrethe Vestager have deserved reputations for being very competent.  Also, Juncker has to reward those member states that opted to nominate women as he struggled to reach nine women out of 28. Romania switched to Corina Creţu, the Czech Republic put forward Vĕra Jourová, and Belgium eventually nominated Marianne Thyssen. Juncker has to decide whether to reward all women or to discriminate among them by, for example, ignoring the claims of Alenka Bratušek, ex-prime minister of Slovenia.

Juncker also faces issues of political persuasion.  How does he accommodate liberals and what policy does he endorse by an appointment.  Lobbyists wonder about Juncker’s approach to climate change, or to EU enlargement, or to manufacturing industry and will be reading much into his choice of commissioners, and his decisions to merge or abolish dossiers.

At the moment, the relationships between Catherine Ashton, the current high representative, and the other commissioners who have foreign policy portfolios – neighborhood, development, humanitarian aid, trade – could hardly be described as smooth.  will Juncker make an attempt to re-shape the structure of the Commission to tie in Mogherini with the other commissioners?