LONDON -- Jose Durao Barroso, the next president of the European Commission, faces many difficult challenges. He will need all the support he can get from the governments of the enlarged community of 25 states.
In the previous commission, the larger states had two commissioners. In the new commission, each state will have one commissioner. These include former prime ministers like Barroso (Portugal) as well as former senior Cabinet ministers. Many of the new commissioners, such as Peter Mandelson of Britain, are highly ambitious politicians.
Barroso will need exceptional skills to weld together such a disparate group, some of whose members may not have adequate English- or French-speaking ability and will want to use their native language whenever possible. Traditions and legal systems, especially in the newly joining countries, are very different and it will not be easy to bridge the differences.