This morning the incoming EU Commission will be halfway through what's called a bonding session and let's hope it's going well. The 20 commissioners-designate, some old, but most new like our own David Byrne, gathered for dinner last night in the small castle at Aartselaar outside Antwerp. Under the eye of new president, Romano Prodi, they got to know each other and discussed their jobs. To avoid Jacques Santer's night of the long knives at a castle in Luxembourg last time round when jobs were divided up on the spot, all portfolios have been allocated and this afternoon the happy group will meet the press for the first time.
The period from the announcement of the Commission last week and the swearing in on September 17th is one of intense activity, despite the continental tradition of a free August. Byrne was in Brussels last Monday, discussing his responsibilities, his location and his staff. He met the top civil servant in his department of Health and Consumer Protection, Horst Reichenback, Prodi's chef de cabinet David O'Sullivan who is as powerful as a commissioner, and another powerful Irishman, Pat Cox, who this week emerged as a future chairman of the parliament. O'Sullivan briefed him on staffing and so forth and Cox filled him in on how to deal with the newly powerful MEPs.
The many Eurocrats and civil servants hoping for positions should note that under Prodi's new rules half the six-person senior cabinet of each commissioner must be non-national, so Byrne is restricted to three Irish people. It is being said the chef may be foreign, although the Department of Foreign Affairs's Bobby McDonagh has been mentioned. Then there's a tradition of keeping on one person from the outgoing cabinet and Prodi's politically correct regime wants a gender balance.
So, as he sorts through dozens of CVs, the new commissioner will have his work cut out. Already he is being guided in his task by a senior official from the Department of the Taoiseach, and he will be in Strasbourg on Wednesday when Prodi's team is presented with questionnaires by MEPs prior to the ratification hearings in September.