The new Commission has already announced a number of structural reforms, including the introduction of a first vice president and six other vice presidents to supervise the activities of the other commissioners.

In addition, a new portfolio has been created in the Commissioner for Migration, a role given – controversially – to the former Greek defence minister Dimitris Avramopoulos.

One of Juncker’s key pledges prior to his confirmation was a three-year, €300 billion public and private investment package to stimulate employment and job creation.

Bernadette Ségol, secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), welcomed the announcement but said more needs to be done:

“It is a start – but it is not enough. The ETUC proposes €250 billion a year over 10 years. That is two per cent of the EU’s GDP, and would create up to 11 million new jobs across Europe. Juncker’s €300 billion is 12 per cent of what we propose,” she said.

Furthermore, says Ségol, there are many unanswered questions on Juncker’s proposed package:

“How much of the €300 billion is new money? How much of it will be public investments? Where will the private investments come from?”

Owen Tudor, head of EU and international relations at the UK’s Trades Union Congress (TUC), told Equal Times: “If the new Commission is to win back people’s trust in the EU, it needs to make a decisive break with the austerity economics and supply-side obsessions of the past.

“Collective bargaining should be rebuilt, not undermined. Workers need more influence over their workplaces and sustainable growth must replace the stability of the grave.

Finally, I hope Juncker will be serious about his pledge to engage more with social dialogue”.

Fausto Durante of the Europe Secretariat of the Italian national centre, CGIL, said he will be watching the new Commission with caution:

“The composition of the new Commission results from attempting to merge many different positions, but the key roles were given to representatives of the conservative parties.

“For example, Juncker is a leading figure of the [centre-right, pro-European] European Peoples’ Party, and the vice president in charge of the economic affairs, Jyrki Katainen, has always been a strong supporter of austerity.”

He said that given what they are up against, Europe’s trade unions must be prepared to mobilise, in whenever way necessary.

“If we don’t turn our back on the way Barroso managed the Commission in recent years, eurosceptics will keep gaining ground and the European dream will be at stake”.

Three-pronged approach

Marion Knappe, of German national trade union centre DGB, called for President Juncker to take a three-pronged approach:

“First, the EU Commission has to intensify its efforts to fight youth unemployment. The so-called “European Youth Guarantee” exists on paper only.

“Second, we need an investment program for growth and employment to modernise European infrastructure.

“Third, we have to make sure that social rights are taken as seriously as economic rights – we call it a social progress clause.”

In her hearing before the European Parliament, the new Commissioner in charge of employment and social affairs, Belgium’s Marianne Thyssen, promised to focus more on the most vulnerable categories of EU citizens, in particular those with disabilities.

Gary May, an information officer at the European Blind Union told Equal Times that despite promises to introduce a European Accessibility Act to facilitate accessibility to goods and services for the 80 million Europeans with disabilities, it still hasn’t happened.

“We look to the new Commission to make good this omission, and to work with us to ensure a strong and effective new Act."

With regards to migration, Michael Diedring, secretary general of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), told Equal Times that given the fact that the world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, Europe must “take its share of responsibility and be a part of the solution”.

He continued: “We very much hope that the new Commission, and in particular the new Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, will take these challenges seriously.”

With regards to environmental issues, Green 10, an alliance of European environmental organisations, said it wants the new Commission to prove that it is “up to the challenge.

“Europe requires environmentally, socially and economically sustainable policies and innovation that benefit the people,” said Angelo Caserta, director of Birdlife Europe and chair of the Green 10.

“In the last decade, unregulated growth has produced economic instability, inequality and unprecedented degradation of the environment.

“Europe does not need a continuation of the same old policies and ideologies”.