THE EU: The Irish commissioner-designate, Mr Charlie McCreevy, is in Brussels today meeting the men and women he will work with for the next five years.
The outgoing Minister for Finance will spend the best part of the day preparing to take up his post as internal market commissioner on November 1st.
Although billed as an informal get-together, it will be an important start for the new commissioners as they slowly get to grips with their new circumstances.
Of the incoming team, only three commissioners are old hands.
But for the uninitiated, there is a whole array of steps that have to be taken over the next two months.
The first duty will be to fill in the commissioners' declaration of interest.
Mr McCreevy will be required to put on paper all his outside activities and his financial assets, as well as any business activities of his wife, Mrs Noeleen McCreevy.
With the resignation of the Santer Commission in 1999 over financial mismanagement still in people's minds, one of the priorities of new president Mr José Manuel Barroso is to make sure there are no skeletons in the closets of his brand new team.
"The code is there to ensure full transparency and to ensure all interests of the commissioners are known to public opinion," said a Commission spokesman.
Another task for the commissioners will be to prepare themselves for their hearings before the European Parliament, which starts on September 27th.
Mr McCreevy will have to answer a specially prepared questionnaire.
The first part will ask him general questions, such as his thoughts on the future of the European Union and how he will treat the European Parliament - relations with the Commission are a permanent source of annoyance for MEPs.
The second part will delve deep into the technicalities of his portfolio, and experts in the Commission will have to help him answer the form.
He is likely to be quizzed on how he will cut red tape for businesses and advance the EU's ambitious but flagging goal of turning itself into the most dynamic economy in the world by 2010 under the Lisbon Agenda.
However, it will be during ad hoc questions posed at the hearings that he will really be tested.
An issue bound to come up is the recent draft directive on services of general interest, proposed by the current internal market commissioner.
Several MEPs, particularly from the socialist group, are up in arms about it, as they claim it will force member-states to open their public services - including healthcare and social services - to market competition.
Today's meeting will also discuss who the future commissioners may have in their cabinets.
At the moment, the six-person team has to contain at least three nationalities and the deputy chef de cabinet cannot be the same nationality as the commissioner.
However, these rules may change.
But essentially it will be a getting-to-know-you exercise for Mr McCreevy and his 24 new colleagues.
They will discuss tactics and hobnob with Brussels media before returning to their countries to start the real process of becoming an EU commissioner.