Brussels in end-of-term mode. The European Parliament is in recess. The European Commission is on its way out, its commissioners looking for, or already, in pastures new. So the rumour-rich Belgian capital is even madder with gossip and speculation than usual.

At the moment, the topic de jour is which country will bag the plum jobs in the next commission, due to start in November. German daily Die Welt last week revealed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is looking to get Christine Lagarde, currently the finance minister, in charge of the heavyweight competition portfolio.

Spain, one of the few left-wing governments that is offering its support to the centre-right Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term in office, is also looking for its pound of flesh. It is said Madrid wants to keep its man about the EU capital – economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia – in an influential post come autumn as well.

Meanwhile, word is the Germans are panicking. The ruling – and bickering – CDU/SPD government has so far been too split on the issue to agree a possible candidate. But if they wait until after the elections in September to nominate a person, they fear all the top jobs will be gone. Promised away to those quicker off the mark.

Who will be Orban-ed?

There is already speculation about who will get the most laughably powerless portfolio in the next commission. That particular baton is currently being carried by Romanian commissioner Leonard Orban, through no particular fault of his own it must be said, and takes the form of ‘commissioner in charge of multilingualism.’

Irish pundits fear the country might be in line to be Orban-ed this time round, as a punishment for its  voters upsetting the political apple cart over the Lisbon Treaty. Some reckon the government should suggest John Bruton (currently head of the European Commission’s Washington delegation) to be commissioner because then Barroso (yes it’s an assumption but one many governments seem happy to leave unchallenged) will “have to” give him a weighty portfolio and not put him up for commissioner for merry-go-rounds or the like.

Well speculation upon speculation. At least there is an air of uncertainty about these names, which cannot be said of Barroso who remains  set for a second term in office, in a rather short-sighted maintaining of the Brussels status quo.

Upon hearing the news of the fire in the Berlaymont on Monday, one wag remarked that the smoke coming out of the building had turned from black to white – a sign that Jose Manuel Barroso has already now been definitively agreed upon for the job.

Thanks to Anda below who pointed out that it is Leonard Orban and not Viktor Orban.