In naming his team of 28 European commissioners, Jean-Claude Juncker (below) has put national governments on the spot by putting their nominees in charge of policy areas they have a problem with. If you don't like it, you fix it, he seems to be saying.

That applies to Lord Hill, who has the plum financial services portfolio, a UK vital interest and one which it is perennially arguing about with Brussels.

France

France's Pierre Moscovici has arguably the toughest task. He has been given the key economic and monetary policy post, which has him overseeing the spending and budget policies of the member states. Until recently the French finance minister, Moscovici failed to get the budget deficit on target to reach the 3% of GDP ceiling allowed by Brussels. He is now charged with enforcing that on his own country. The French have already been given two years' leeway to hit the target by next year. On Wednesday Michel Sapin, Moscovici's successor as finance minister, announced Paris would need a further two years to conform with the rules by 2017.

Hungary

Under the increasingly authoritarian rule of prime minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary risks becoming the black sheep of the EU because of its record on human rights, media freedom, and Orbán's drive to create what he calls an "illiberal" society. Tibor Navracsics of Orbán's Fidesz party can expect a tough grilling from the European parliament next month. He has been put in charge of culture, education and promotion of civic rights despite being from a government seen to be trampling on civil society. The Hungarian is also charged with selling the merits of the EU, while coming from a party and a government increasingly prone to complain about the EU as a neo-colonial power.

Greece

Greece is on the frontline of the effort to contain and cope with the wave of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean from the Middle East and north Africa. It has been criticised from human rights monitors for its treatment of the incomers and has long complained that the rest of Europe does little to help and that there is no "burden-sharing". Juncker has put Dimitris Avramopoulos, the conservative Greek defence minister, a former foreign minister and mayor of Athens, in charge of migration and justice, challenging him to get to grips with a policy Athens accuses others of failing in.

Germany

Germany has been handed the digital economy brief, with a remit over the crucial balance between privacy and the free flow of information. But Günther Oettinger, the outgoing energy commissioner, was said to be hoping for something bigger, possibly trade, putting him in charge of the major negotiations with Washington on a transatlantic free trade zone. This went to Sweden's Cecilia Malmström, a Swedish liberal who had been commissioner for justice and home affairs.

While the German portfolio is middling, Berlin appears satisfied with the overall shape and thrust, with its heavy emphasis on economic expertise, geared to further austerity, fiscal rigour, and structural reforms of the European economy, and a focus on competitiveness. Conservative north European fiscal hawks, supported by Germany, have key vice-presidential posts in charge of the single currency zone.

The Netherlands

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister and a social democrat (unlike Juncker, a Christian democrat), has been made the commission No 2, reinforcing Juncker's apparent aim of running a grand coalition of Christian and social democrats, with liberals also well-represented. But Juncker has also told the Dutch implicitly to tackle what they see as one of the EU's biggest problems, the failure to delegate decision-taking to the national level where possible, the complaint that Brussels should do less but better. Timmermans has been put in charge of implementing what is known as "subsidiarity". It will be more difficult for The Hague to complain when it is responsible for the policy.

Juncker, it seems, is calling bluffs.