Turning point for the European project

Jean-Claude Juncker has imposed a radical overhaul at the EU Commission as priorities shift from enlargement and lawmaking to energy and monetary union, reports Ana Palacio

BEFORE his appointment as EU Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker was pilloried as an old-school federalist who would do little to alter the status quo. But the new structure that he has imposed on the Commission implies a radical overhaul of how things are done in Brussels.

Up to now, a focus on who has been appointed to what post — in particular, the appointment of the relatively inexperienced Federica Mogherini as EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy — has overshadowed the Commission’s structural transformation.