This past Saturday the members of the new European Commission, the “cabinet” of the European Union’s executive branch, took office. Led by former Luxembourgish prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, the new Commission faces a wide range of challenges both within the Union and in its near abroad. The EU faces an unemployment rate higher than 10 percent, is near deflationary territory, and may well end up in a triple-dip recession. Meanwhile multiple armed conflicts are raging just across its borders, new and extreme political parties dominate the politics of various member states, and secession movements (Scotland, Catalonia) threaten both the EU and its constituent members. The Commission, as always without a direct electoral mandate, composed of commissioners handpicked by national governments and assigned to posts by an unelected leader, may not be able to address these problems by itself, but the priorities it ought to set for the entire constellation of European institutions are clear.