THE process of divvying up European Commission jobs makes three-dimensional chess look like noughts and crosses.

From a leaked EC document seen by Agenda, we note a new tendency to give big economy-affecting jobs to Eastern Europeans, although this is not necessarily a good thing in the eyes of the UK-Dutch-Swedish pro-reform faction in the European Council, as recent accession states can't be relied on to buck the "Brussels consensus".

Those earmarked for big jobs include Poland's deputy prime minister, Elzbieta Bienkowska, who gets one of the top (renamed) jobs in charge of budget and financial control. Fellow "new Europeans" taking roles include Estonia's Andrus Ansip (growth, EMU, European semester and social dialogue) and Slovenia's Alenka Bratusek (digital and innovation).

A big job was predicted for former Latvian PM Valdis Dombrovskis, who duly gets the key post of energy union. Having got chummy with "Domby" after interviewing him a couple of times, Agenda will be applying to be Scottish Ambassador to the European Union, to sweet talk him into a pro-renewables policy tailored to the needs of an independent Scotland.