Jean-Claude Juncker faces a number of challenges as he takes over the European Commission presidency. Photo: Reuters

The new European Commission, led by former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, which took office yesterday, faces a number of important economic and political challenges over the next five years.

Together with Donald Tusk, former prime minister of Poland, who becomes President of the European Council on December 1, Mr Juncker will need to focus on reviving the eurozone economy, keeping Britain in the EU, having a more unified European foreign and security policy, convincing member states to play their part in tackling irregular migration and building an energy union.

Mr Juncker has appointed a good mix of commissioners including a number of economic reformists such as Sweden’s Cecilia Malmström for trade and Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager for competition. Frans Timmermans, the respected former Dutch foreign minister, and like Mr Juncker an EU veteran, has been appointed first vice president, a new post, and will be working closely with the President.

One of Mr Timmermans’s key tasks is to have a look at subsidiarity – issues that can best be addressed at a national rather than an EU level – which should strike a chord with many of the member states.

Another challenge for Mr Juncker is to do whatever he can to keep Britain in the EU

The new Commission also has six other vice presidents whose portfolios include overall responsibility for key areas such as the digital single market, the euro, the budget, jobs, economic growth, competitiveness and the energy union.

Hopefully, this will encourage more coordination within the Commission on key economic policy areas.

Mr Juncker’s most important priority has to be job creation and economic growth. The unemployment rate in both the eurozone and the EU 28 is still far too high, 11.5 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, while eurozone GDP was flat in the April-June quarter. The Commission President has already said that it is his intention to create a digital single market for consumers and businesses, which could generate €500 billion of additional growth over the next five years as well as hundreds of thousands of new jobs, so that is certainly a welcome start. Hopefully, the member states will give their full support to this proposal.

Other policies that could spur economic growth and which Mr Juncker has said he will support are a trade agreement between the EU and the US – with the necessary environmental and consumer safeguards in place – as well as the creation of a new European Energy Union, something Mr Tusk strongly supports.

The EU imports more than half its gas and electricity, and 30 per cent of EU gas comes from Russia, which is especially problematic considering the Ukraine crisis. A properly functioning EU market for gas and electricity with integrated energy policies would reduce wastage, bring down prices, and make the bloc less reliant on Russia. The consultancy firm Strategy&, for example, believes the EU could save €40 billion a year by 2030 if it integrated its energy grids.

Another challenge for Mr Juncker is to do whatever he can to keep Britain in the EU. The UK is an immensely important member of the bloc and has contributed enormously to the development of the EU, especially in the area of the single market. A British exit from Europe would be in nobody’s interest; it would be bad for the UK and bad for the EU. Hopefully common sense will prevail and a fair deal can be reached by the two sides.

The way the EU conducts its foreign policy is another important policy area for Mr Juncker. The EU needs to adopt a more united foreign and security policy as it faces new challenges such as an increasingly aggressive Russia and the spread of jihadism in many parts of the Muslim world.

Together with the new EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, former Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini, Mr Juncker must do whatever he can to bolster democratic forces in the Arab and Muslim world. Tunisia, for example, a rare success story in the Arab Spring which has shown that consensus between Islamist and secular parties is indeed possible, deserves to be fully supported by the EU.

Immigration should be another priority for Mr Juncker. The mass exodus of irregular immigrants from the Horn of Africa and the Middle East is exerting huge pressure on countries like Italy, Malta, Spain and Greece, and it is only right that other EU member states share in the burden. Italy’s Mare Nostrum operation, for example, which rescued more than 100,000 migrants, is costing Rome €10 million a month.

It is possible that Mare Nostrum will now be phased out; a new EU project, Operation Triton, run within the framework of Frontex, the bloc’s border agency, is to operate with a third of the Italian operation’s budget and will be funded by only a handful of EU member states. Frontex’s budget itself only amounts to €100 million a year – compared, for example, to €60 billion which the EU spends on agricultural subsidies.

It is true that Germany, France, the UK and Sweden took in 70 per cent of those granted refugee status in the EU last year, but other member states should play their part by taking in their share of refugees.

And the EU as a whole needs to allocate more funds to tackle this challenge. Mr Juncker will need to utilise all his experience as a consensus builder to convince all the member states to pay more attention to the tragedy of irregular migration in the Mediterranean.