EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso's new team is set to get the green light from the European parliament today, ending a three-month limbo period during the bloc's worst ever economic crisis.

The mandate of Barroso's first team of policy commissioners officially ran out at the end of October but problems in ratifying the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty, followed by the parliament's rejection of Bulgaria's choice for EU humanitarian aid commissioner, kept the outgoing team on in a caretaker capacity.