According to a document seen by Politico, von der Leyen will continue to have 12 senior cabinet members.

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, who will also be vice-president of the Commission, as well as the five next most senior commissioners, or executive vice-presidents, will be allowed nine – one fewer than in 2019.

The remaining 20 commissioners will continue to have six senior cabinet members each.

According to Politico, these new rules have been long awaited in Brussels, where governments have been working for months to position their own country's representatives in influential roles.

As a commissioner may not have only cabinet members from their own country, this creates an opportunity for member states to trade – meaning one country accepting a cabinet member from another country can ask the other to do the same in return. Kallas being authorized to hire a nine-strong team will give Estonia more opportunities to bargain its own officials into other commissioners' cabinets.

In contrast, Estonia's current representative, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, had a six-member cabinet, and just three Estonians were represented in outgoing commissioners' cabinets.

One of the goals of these rules is to ensure diversity in nationality, gender and seniority in the cabinets of all 27 commissioners, Politico noted. Like in 2019, every cabinet must have an equal number of men and women.

Only some new cabinet rules

Despite rumors of major changes being made to cabinet rules, only a few small changes were made, Politico noted.

As in 2019, the cabinets of von der Leyen, Kallas and the five executive vice presidents must include representatives of at least five different nationalities; regular commissioners' cabinets will be required to include at least three.

A new rule, meanwhile, stipulates that no more than two cabinet members can hail from the same country as the commissioner, and for the first time, all cabinet directors will be required to undergo a security clearance process as conducted by an EU country.

Politico explained that commissioners rely on their cabinets to push their agenda in Brussels, noting that these cabinets can be hugely influential in writing and overseeing their respective commissioner's policy ambitions.

This summer, Kaja Kallas tapped Estonian diplomat and head of the European Commission representation in Estonia Vivian Loonela as her future cabinet director.

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