The next European Commission has a mammoth five-year task ahead to convince millions of EU citizens of the benefits of Brussels' policies if it wants to rectify a "crisis of comprehension", analysts said on Friday.
Incoming president of the Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has now unveiled the line-up of the team that is set to enter office in November, subject to approval by the European Parliament.
Some of his choices, such as that of a Dutch businesswoman for the EU's top competition job, came as a surprise. But most observers have hailed Barroso's job selection as a success.
Barroso's biggest hurdle may now be to "sell" the EU - and the merits of his new team - to a European population that has become increasingly sceptical of Brussels and its bureaucrats.
To this end, Barroso appointed Sweden's Margot Wallstrom, the outgoing environment commissioner, as his deputy with additional responsibility for communication and contacts with the EU's 25 national parliaments.
"The communications strategy is going to be of colossal importance," said John Palmer, political director of the Brussels-based European Policy Centre. "In five years' time, she (Wallstrom) may be the best known European politician."
"This is quite important as it tells us that communication will be one of the key issues in the next five years: in the context of ratification (of the EU constitution) and in the crisis of comprehension that has been a problem for some time."
Many Europeans are sceptical about what actually goes on in the EU's "capital", suspecting that the plethora of new EU laws issued by Brussels each year aims to strip away powers that have been enshrined in national statute books for centuries. "He (Barroso) could avoid some gaffes ... but the fundamental problem is structural," said Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
"The EU deals with long-term issues which don't register with the press and population. And it mostly works through national governments - their tendency is to say that everything good comes from them, and everything bad comes from Brussels."
In June, EU voters stayed away in droves from the European elections, reflecting their indifference or disenchantment with EU institutions that are seen as remote and elitist. Well under half of the nearly 350 million eligible voters bothered to cast ballots and the apathetic turnout was even worse in the 10 new member states that joined the EU in May. The low turnout helped to boost the fortunes of eurosceptic parties.
"The apathy shown in the last European elections is worrying," said Barroso, former prime minister of Portugal in his presentation of the new EU executive on Thursday.