For a guy who isn't standing for reelection, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has a lot to say about how the EU should be run for the next five years.

Juncker and his team issued a 53-page report on Tuesday intended to "help" EU leaders who will meet at a special summit in Sibiu, Romania next week to discuss the future beyond the upcoming European Parliament election, and will soon need to fill nearly all of the EU's top leadership posts for a new term.

The first 26 pages generally focus on what a great job the Juncker Commission has done. The report also helpfully contains an additional 27 pages of annexes mostly trumpeting the Juncker Commission's economic and political achievements.

Depending on perspective, the report might be seen either as a dutiful and well-intentioned effort to maintain stability and continuity or a brazen overreach by a lame-duck Commission intent on exerting continued influence beyond its term. In either case, it will certainly be viewed as the latest chapter in the eternal institutional rivalry between the Commission and the European Council across the street, led by President Donald Tusk.

"The EU has also to keep on delivering for the future," said the Juncker Commission's chief spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, unveiling the report at a news conference on Tuesday.

"And it is in the Commission's humble view that future action in the next five years should focus on creating a protective Europe, a competitive Europe, a fair Europe, a sustainable Europe and an influential Europe. The document that the College [of Commissioners] has adopted today and will be put to our leaders next week precisely spells out the work to be prioritized in each of these five strands that I have just listed."

But while it spells out the work to be prioritized, Schinas rejected any assertion of overreach.

"It's not a work program for the next five years," he said. "It's a contribution that our commissioners, our political masters here, President Juncker and his commissioners, deliver to the leaders and to President Tusk to help them construct their own agenda, something they will have to do."

Schinas acknowledged that much of the report was a positive self-assessment by the Commission.

"The Sibiu summit is the opportunity for the leaders of the EU27 to define new, ambitious, realistic and focused goals for the next political cycle." — Margaritis Schinas

"Half of it, I would say, it's a rather humble, or modest, or moderate account of this fantastic delivery of the last five years," he said.

The report itself describes the EU as generally better off than five years ago, but notes that the political environment remains challenging, with continuing threats from climate change, potential economic shocks, populist political forces and technological upheaval.

It is not shy about giving pointers to the leaders who will gather in Romania next week.

"Sibiu is therefore an opportunity for EU leaders to demonstrate their unity and give a fresh outlook to our continent," the report states. "They should do so by showing that they have listened to citizens’ hopes, concerns and expectations; and that they are ready to act decisively and collectively to address them. Today, the European Commission is making a number of recommendations for the next strategic agenda that will help our Union to do just that."

Schinas said the Commission is merely trying to help foster the dialogue at Sibiu, where Juncker had initially hoped that the EU would make a fresh start following the departure of the United Kingdom. Brexit, however, has failed to happen, and the still-departing U.K. remains a source of enormous distraction for the EU27.

But officials said the conversation on the future would begin in any event.

"The Sibiu summit," Schinas said, "is the opportunity for the leaders of the EU27 to define new, ambitious, realistic and focused goals for the next political cycle."

Schinas said the Commission has not consulted any of the candidates to succeed Juncker as Commission president, but one of those candidates — Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans, the nominee of the Party of European Socialists — undoubtedly has some influence. A number of the achievements cited in the report are portfolios that Timmermans managed.