BRUSSELS: At first sight, the European Union's new leadership team looks like a missed opportunity.
Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk and Federica Mogherini seem a less than ideal crew to tackle the EU's biggest challenges dynamising a stagnant economy, standing up to Russia over Ukraine and preventing Britain from drifting away from Europe.
Yet each may surprise their detractors on the upside. The former Luxembourg prime minister, current Polish prime minister and Italian foreign minister bring a combination of wily west European compromise building, stolid central European determination and youthful Mediterranean exuberance to the task.
They tick the requisite boxes of political balance between left and right, north and south, east and west, men and women, and big and small states.
Whether they have the leadership and communication skills, and in Mogherini's case the diplomatic experience, to restore confidence in the EU and command respect abroad remains to be seen.
This was the year when the 28-nation bloc had an opportunity to choose a new set of top officials after many voters expressed their disenchantment with the EU through mass abstention and big protest votes in European Parliament elections in May.
But rather than reach for the most talented statesmen and women EU luminaries like France's Pascal Lamy, Italy's Mario Monti or Sweden's Carl Bildt national leaders preferred to play safe by picking a trio of relatively low-profile figures unlikely to threaten their own dominance of European policy.
None of the newcomers has the stature of a Jacques Delors, the greatest European Commission president, nor of European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.
Yet they have the potential to grow into their roles provided member states do not sap their authority or continue to blame "Brussels" for their own poor decision-making and in Juncker the EU has a consummate deal-maker who knows how to navigate the bloc's tortuous corridors of power.
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