Reactions have been swift to José Manuel Barroso’s snap announcement, on 27 November, that he had finished handing out the posts in his new team, with the European Parliament’s groups underlining that it will be their job to give the nod or the boot to the incoming college.

The EPP held up its trump card: new Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, the Danish ex-climate and current environment minister. “This appointment can only increase the chances of success at the Copenhagen climate change conference,” EPP group leader Joseph Daul said in a statement.

The largest group in the Parliament and across the 27-member bloc (14 prime ministers and now 13 commissioners belong to the centre-right umbrella group) will also, of course, hold the top job in the Commission, along with the agriculture, energy, industry and internal market tickets – the latter of which will continue to include financial services, a boon for incoming French Commissioner Michel Barnier.

Meanwhile, ALDE leader Guy Verhofstadt celebrated what he saw as his party’s victory in taking almost a third of the Commission’s seats. With eight commissioners, Verhofstadt - whose party is third in size, behind the Socialists - said the outcome was the result of a deal he made to support Barroso’s second term back in June.

“We backed Barroso with a number of clear priorities in his programme,” Verhofstadt told journalists just after the news broke. “From the beginning, we were working on the top jobs in the Commission. What counts is not so much the people there but what were the portfolios […] and could these portfolios help us in our fight to have a more pro-European agenda.”

He said he was pleased about securing the home affairs and trade jobs. The coveted economic and monetary affairs portfolio – without the addition of financial services – will also go to ALDE in the person of Finland’s Olli Rehn, the outgoing enlargement chief, as will environment, research, internet and education.

The S&D group, although the second-largest in Parliament, has the fewest seats in the EU executive (six). However, it will hold three of the seven vice-presidencies, including foreign policy (the top job won last week by the UK’s Catherine Ashton), competition and interinstitutional relations.

The Socialists will also take social policy, enlargement and fisheries.

“It gives me satisfaction to note that we will have more vice-presidencies than any other political family,” S&D group leader Martin Schulz said. “This will ensure a proper balance at the highest level of Commission decision making. It will allow us a proper degree of influence on policy and give us an important platform for our progressive views about Europe.”

The Parliament will hold hearings on the new line-up between 11 and 19 January – in Brussels and Strasbourg – with a mini-session on the 26th to coordinate the positions.

The EP is “well prepared and ready to hold in-depth hearings to scrutinise their suitability for these important EU positions,” the institution’s President, Jerzy Buzek, commented.