Background:
The Nice Treaty stipulates that when the number of EU member states reaches 27, the number of commissioners appointed in the subsequent EU executive would have to be less than this number, without giving a precise figure.
With the EU now having numbered 27 members since 1 January 2007, there is an understanding that the current number of commissioners exceeds the realistic number of portfolios.
As an example, to accommodate Bulgaria and Romania, Markos Kyprianou, the Cypriot health and consumer protection commissioner, had to abandon the second part of his portfolio in favour of his new Bulgarian colleague, Meglena Kuneva (EurActiv 26/10/06) Similarly, the multilingualism portfolio was taken from Ján Figel, the Slovak commissioner for education, training and culture, and handed to Leonard Orban, the Romanian commissioner (EurActiv 31/10/06).