Portfolio: Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms | Country: Italy | Age: 55 | Political faction: European Conservatives and Reformists

Why you should care: Of all the nominees, Raffaele Fitto might be the most controversial pick. The choice to award an Executive Vice President position to a member of the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) faction and close confidante of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni reflects the right's growing importance in European politics. Von der Leyen's decision did not go down well with the Greens and Social Democrats, especially given that the latter backed her second term on the condition that she stay away from the far right.

However politically sensitive his nomination may be, Fitto certainly cannot be accused of lacking the necessary experience. The son of an Apulian governor, he followed in his father's footsteps, going on to hold ministerial positions in several Italian governments and serving multiple terms as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). In Brussels, Fitto will find himself holding the purse strings of the EU's €800 billion Covid-19 recovery package – of which Italy is the biggest recipient.

Something spicy: You would be hard-pressed to find a party on Italy's right that Fitto has not been a member of. At first glance, the politician appears to have switched party affiliations at least nine times during his political career, moving ever further away from the centre, while often retaining some affiliation to Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia. A high-profile break with Il Cavaliere in 2015 eventually pushed him – after a few detours, of course – into the arms of Meloni's Brothers of Italy.

Portfolio: Commissioner for Enlargement | Country: Slovenia | Age: 59 | Political faction: Independent (formerly with Renew Europe)

Why you should care: Marta Kos was only nominated at the last minute. Von der Leyen wanted to assemble a gender-balanced Commission. She requested each member state to put forward both a man and a woman as Commissioner – something almost all of them ignored. To at least achieve something resembling gender parity, VDL mounted a heavy-pressure campaign to get some countries to swap out their original male nominee for a female candidate, in exchange for a bigger portfolio and thus more influence. That's where Kos comes in, taking over her country's nomination from its original pick, Tomaž Vesel, in the final hour.

Slovenia’s obedience was rewarded richly, with Kos nabbing the coveted Enlargement portfolio. The former ambassador to Germany, Latvia and Switzerland will be tasked with charting a path to accession for Ukraine, getting the Balkan countries out of Europe's waiting room, and countering Georgia's democratic backsliding – responsibilities for which she'll need the endurance of her time as a Yugoslav swimming champion.

Something sour: Kos's nomination will be the subject of much scrutiny in Parliament, where she'll have to pass a round of questioning and be subjected to a confirmation vote. Despite her diplomatic credentials, concerns about the revolving door nature of her career, her misinterpretation-prone statements on Russia, and an investigation into mismanagement at her embassy risk derailing her European ambitions.

Portfolio: Commissioner for Energy and Housing | Country: Denmark | Age: 49 | Political faction: Socialists & Democrats

Why you should care: If you didn't already know, Europe is in the midst of a housing crisis - like, a really, really, really, really, really, really bad one – and Dan Jørgenson is here to help us get out of it. That is, if he can. As the EU's first-ever Commissioner for Housing, Jørgenson has the unenviable task of fixing the continent's lack of affordable places to live, despite the EU having almost no competences in this area.

Von der Leyen has tasked him with drawing up a European Affordable Housing Plan, as well as tackling short-term accommodation rental excesses (think city centres with more Airbnbs than actual apartments) and combatting the dramatic underinvestment in Europe's building stock. On the energy side of things, the former Danish Minister for Global Climate Policy will focus on lowering energy prices, overhauling the bloc's energy taxes, and rolling out the energy infrastructure necessary for Net Zero.

Something spicy: Back in 2018, Jørgenson posted a sassy video to his Facebook account, clapping back at Donald Trump's fiery warnings against 'Nordic Socialism'. That same year, on the other end of the political spectrum, he outed himself as Denmark's primary Bernie Bro, appearing alongside the Vermont senator in a video promoting the Danish welfare state.

Portfolio: Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union | Country: Portugal | Age: 57 | Political faction: European People’s Party

Why you should care: All of those lofty initiatives and posh policy objectives I just laid out above? Well, Maria Luís Albuquerque is here to find the money for 'em. A longtime economic policymaker, she is tasked with turning the EU executive into an 'Investment Commission', ensuring the bloc can secure the bag and maintain its – you guessed it! – competitiveness.

To this end, Von der Leyen has asked her to complete the EU’s so-called capital markets union, eliminating financial barriers between member states and designing new European saving and investment products. Hopes are Albuquerque can attract more private investment into Europe, spurring economic growth in the process. Interestingly, she is also tasked with improving EU citizens' ”financial literacy”, in an effort to help more small savers like you and me find their way to the Union’s capital markets.

Something spicy: Like so many of her potential peers in the next Commission, Albuquerque’s nomination is not without controversy. She is known as the Portuguese face of austerity for her tough fiscal policies during the country’s sovereign debt crisis. No wonder that her political opponents back home dubbed her an ”agent of the Troika” when she was serving as finance minister, referring to the infamous trio of lenders (the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank) that provided massive rescue packages to countries at risk of defaulting on their debt. Albuquerque has also been criticised over her involvement with various financial institutions during her time outside the civil service, including as a supervisory board member of Morgan Stanley’s European branch.

So, there you have it! Our introduction to some of the incoming Commission’s most intriguing characters. While they're all interesting in their own right, the final question left before we leave you in anticipation to see Kubilius orbiting earth and Jørgenson troll Trump online is this: why should you even care?

Commissioners are, on paper, running the show. Within the EU institutions, the European Commission is the only body that can formally propose legislation, and the final one to approve laws in the making. You would obviously want to know who is making these choices.

But that does not mean that you need to follow every single Commissioners work for the next five years. Some of them are simply blessed with more important roles than others. Just look at Várhelyi, and by extension Hungary, who received an objectively less relevant role than Spain and Italy. If you want to know more about how the EU decides on digital regulation, it’s enough to track vice-president Virkkunen instead of all seven Commissioners who share the duty with her.

All 26 of them will now be tested on their knowledge and integrity in a series of hearings in the European Parliament, after which their appointment is voted on in both the EP’s individual committees and plenary. Rumour has it these hearings are scheduled for the first week of November, with a potential start date for the next Commission on 1 December, but we won't know for sure until Parliament's official timetable is finalised on Wednesday.

To be continued!