Catherine Stihler, Scottish Labour MEP

The Commission candidates are nominated. President Barroso now will make the tough decisions over who gets what portfolios. This will be no easy task. However he must be commended over the fact that there are more women than in the previous commission. The President of the Commission took the issue seriously. A third of the Commission will be female. There is still no ethnic diversity in the Commission and this is an issue which we have to get serious about. If the family photo of the Commissioner is only white, it does not say much about those running the EU yet the irony is that we are doing more to help those in minorities than ever before. Why is this not being translated into those running the EU?

The Parliament will hold the hearings on the first week back from the Christmas holidays. It will be an intense period. Those not familiar with their dossier will be having little holiday as they jen up on policy issues. From the candidates there are some familiar faces including former MEPs, Vivienne Reding, Antonio Tajani and Cecilia Malmstrom. There are people who have great expertise such as the Danish Climate change minister and Neelie Kroes who has proved herself a tough operator. This Commission faces some of our greatest challenges from climate change to solving the financial crisis. It also faces the challenge of making the EU more relevant to people.

The next few months will be intense however the challenges we face we can only do together.