Composition of the European Commission

The glossary is being updated given the recent signing of the Treaty of Lisbon.

From its earliest days, the Commission was always made up of two nationals of each of the Member States with the largest populations and one national of each of the others. In the enlarged Union, the Commission's make-up is the focus of considerable debate.

It is a key issue, since it involves deciding on the optimum number of Commissioners needed to guarantee the legitimacy, collective responsibility and effectiveness of an institution whose purpose is to represent the general interest in a fully independent way. The concept of collective responsibility is crucial. It is a feature of the Commission structure and means that positions adopted by the Commission reflect the views of the Commission as a whole, not those of individual members. With the prospect of future enlargements, it was feared that a large increase in the number of Commissioners would lead to nationalisation of their function to the detriment of collective responsibility. Conversely, should the number be limited, the fear was that some nationalities would not be represented among the Commissioners.

The Treaty of Nice, a product of the 2000 Intergovernmental Conference, offered a provisional solution by limiting the number of members to one Commissioner per Member State as from the start of the term of the 2004-09 Commission. The present European executive, chaired by the former Portuguese prime minister, José Manuel Barroso, thus consists of 27 Commissioners.

The protocol on enlargement annexed to the Treaty of Nice also stipulates that, from the date on which the first Commission following the date of accession of the 27th Member State of the Union takes up its duties (i.e. in principle as of November 2009), the number of Members of the Commission shall be less than the number of Member States. The actual number will then be set by the Council, acting unanimously.

See:

• Enlargement
• European Commission
• President of the European Commission
• Weighting of votes in the Council