The European Commission president announced, on 20 October in Parliament, that he had just written to the EU heads of state and government to ask them to nominate additional commissioner candidates because the current list of contenders for the 26 seats contains very few women. “I would ask you all to see gender balance as a common goal and a shared responsibility,” writes José Manuel Barroso in the letter distributed by his staff. President Barroso, who is holding talks with the different capitals, will announce the composition of his next team once the Council has appointed the Union’s future numbers one and two, namely the permanent Council president and the high representative for foreign affairs. According to EP sources, EU leaders will hold an initial exchange of views on the appointments at their dinner, on 29 October, at the mid-term EU summit. If ratification of the Lisbon Treaty can be concluded soon, a new extraordinary Council could be convened in mid-November to announce the two names.