This week the new European Commission will take office, following a vote in the European Parliament at the conclusion of its hearings with the commissioners. No one doubts the Commission will secure the vote, since both individually and collectively it came well out of the engagement. Mr Romano Prodi, the Commission President, cleverly pre-empted pressure from the parliament by saying he would resign rather than be forced to secure a second mandate in December, after a putative probationary period arising from the outgoing Commission's premature resignation earlier this year.
The expected confrontation between parliamentarians and commissioners proved an anti-climax. Questioning was ill-focussed and uncoordinated, suggesting the newly elected MEPs have still much work to do in consolidating the extra powers they won in the Amsterdam Treaty and renewing the determination with which their predecessors forced the Santer Commission to resign over corruption allegations. Mr Prodi has undertaken to co-operate closely with them, in a five point programme which includes giving the parliament a role in the dismissal of a commissioner who falls short of agreed standards. He emerges in a stronger position as the new Commission sets about its work. It has new mandates to reform administrative procedures and culture and to undertake a substantial reorganisation of its directorates - with which the Commissioners will now have to work more closely.
There is a good chance this will prove to be an effective Commission, alert to the tasks and opportunities it faces in coming years. That is important for the future of the EU as a whole. A continental enlargement is now under way. It has been given added momentum by the Kosovo war and the Stability Pact, which pledges membership eventually for most or all the Balkan states. A decision has to be reached at the Helsinki European Council next December on Turkey's outstanding application to join. Looking ahead one can envisage an EU with up to 35 member-states in 20 or 25 years time.
This would require a radical overhaul of representation and decision-making procedures. Proposed reforms will be discussed at an inter-governmental conference to be initiated in coming months, whose mandate has yet to be precisely agreed. Whatever it is will bear heavily on the role and powers of the Commission and how these are balanced against those of the parliament and the Council of Ministers. Some of the larger states are keen to see their involvement strengthened, partly to pre-empt domination of the new structures by the greater number of smaller ones. One way of doing that would be to alter the balance between the EU's institutions, in particular by boosting the role of the European Council summits and by weakening the relative position of the Commission.
That would not be in the best interests of the smaller member-states - or of the EU as a whole. It will be easier to make the case if the Prodi Commission performs effectively over the next five years. It will start its term of office with goodwill all round, especially among the smaller states such as Ireland which best understand its role of protecting their interests in a system of pooled sovereignty.