MPs have raised concerns about an increase in the number of European Commissioners including whether smaller countries could produce politicians of "sufficient calibre" for the roles.
Plans to reduce the size of the commission were shelved as a concession to Ireland following its referendum rejection of the Lisbon Treaty and it is set to remain at one commissioner for each European Union (EU) member state.
In the House of Commons today, MPs complained about the cost of an ever-expanding commission and the bureaucracy it will involve.
Liberal Democrat Martin Horwood said there were "number of issues" raised by the uncontrolled growth of the commission, but he acknowledged how important having a representative on the body was for some nations.
However, he said: "There is, without being unkind to some of the smaller member states, a bit of a capacity issue in terms of their ability to produce candidates of sufficient calibre for something that effects the entire continent.
"There is also the issue that it does slightly, in terms of public perception, muddy the whole idea of the commission.
"The commission essentially should be the equivalent of our civil service, it should be the servant of the council of ministers and the various European ministerial councils and it should be the servant of the Parliament.
"It shouldn't really be pretending to be a representative body in the same way."
The Cheltenham MP added: "There are issues with this potential for the endless growth of EU commissioners, or at least limited only by the number of European states that might join the European Union.
"But I think it is clear from the Irish referendum debate and, as any fan of the TV series Borgen will know, that for smaller countries the appointment of a European Commissioner is quite a major political issue, it is something to which they attach a great deal of importance, so we have to respect that.
"We are a community of many nations and many different priorities and I think it's important we acknowledge that."
Tory eurosceptic Chris Heaton-Harris questioned whether the Government had missed an opportunity to "trim" the scale of the commission.
With more and more countries joining the EU, the bureaucracy would continue to expand and went against Prime Minister David Cameron's hopes to make Europe more competitive, he said.
Former MEP Mr Heaton-Harris (Daventry) added: "Every commissioner has to have a cabinet, a group of people around them, of top civil servants. They bring with them an extra language normally, there is a huge amount of cost associated with that.
"I think agreeing with this decision sits slightly oddly with something the Prime Minister said in his speech on EU policy generally last week under the theme of competitiveness. He said: 'Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger?' That's a fair question.
"I think it is almost getting to the point that we have a serious discussion about if the European Commission is going to work effectively, how is it going to be done?"
He added: "With many accessions coming down the line, it does seem that this has been an opportunity missed."
The issue was raised as the European Union (Approvals) Bill was put before the House of Commons for its second reading.
As well as ratifying the decision to retain the number of commissioners at one per member state, it also approves the decision in Brussels to create an online record of European parliamentary business.