European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has designed her second-term commissioner team to ‘divide and rule’ in the next five years.

When von der Leyen unveiled her second-term team of 26 commissioners in Strasbourg on Tuesday (17 September), it was not immediately apparent to everyone what to expect from the new composition.

“It was a complicated process to build [this new team],” a senior Commission official with knowledge of the matter admitted.

“Maybe on paper, it looks complex, but it reflects the reality that policies need to be cross-coordinated more than before,” they said.

Euractiv has been working to better understand the new Commission, first delving into the Commission President's idea of 'strategic overlap' and also by compiling bios on every proposed member of the new College.

With Euractiv's commission tracker, meet the nominees and demystify the Commission's matrix. With each portfolio seemingly overlapping, our map sets out who they are, where they're from, and what they'll actually be working on.

In the end, von der Leyen’s plan to achieve gender balance fell short, with her new team consisting of 11 women and 16 men. However, women remain numerically supreme among the prestigious vice-president positions. Outside of that the challenge has been to strike a delicate balance between geography, party politics and the candidates’ credentials.