European Parliament approves new EU commissioners

Some MEPs did, however, still question Mr Orban's portfolio as the EU commissioner for multilingualism saying his job tasks "are not clear."

The post has been carved out of the portfolio of EU culture and education commissioner Jan Figel.

Mr Orban will be responsible for three directorate-generals in the commission: translation, interpretation and the office for official publications of the European communities and will oversee around 3,400 civil servants.

He has said he supported the ongoing commission "mother tongue + 2" initiative to increase EU citizens' language abilities and has spoken in favour of subtitling movies instead of dubbing them, which will expose viewers to other languages.

However, Mr Orban cannot force member states to take action on multilingualism, as education and intercultural issues – areas important for his portfolio – are essentially under national control.

From 2007, the European bloc will have a total of 23 official languages adding to the already-existing tensions between administrative efficiency and the right of citizens to linguistic diversity.

Ms Kuneva – who as Europe minister guided Bulgaria into the EU – has seen less questions raised about her future responsibilities. She will be the EU commissioner for consumer protection – a portfolio taken from commissioner Markos Kyprianou who will now focus only on health in the EU.

Ms Kuneva has said she supports harmonisation of consumer protection standards and has pledged she will also focus on areas where consumer protection faces great challenges, such as in electronic communications.

Both commissioners will be received in the commission at a welcoming event in Brussels on 4 January 2007.