Juncker faces make-or-break week

(BRUSSELS) - The EU faces a decisive week as incoming chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker seeks approval for his new team to start tackling the economic and foreign policy challenges that beset the continent.

With the eurozone on the verge of a new crisis, the risk of spillover from turmoil in the Middle East, and relations with Russia still tense over Ukraine, Europe is under pressure from all sides to act.

But Brussels is in limbo until Juncker's new European Commission replaces the outgoing team, led by Jose Manuel Barroso, as the executive arm for the bloc of 28 nations and 500 million people.

The European Parliament is due to vote in Strasbourg on Wednesday on Juncker's commission in its entirety. If it passes, Juncker's team can start its five-year mandate as planned on November 1.

The European Commission is arguably the most powerful institution in Brussels, as it drafts laws and policies for a sprawling region that, taken together, represents the world's largest economy.

But that depends on the last two members of Juncker's team -- including the controversial Slovenian candidate Violeta Bulc, named at short notice after parliament rejected her predecessor -- passing interviews with parliament on Monday.

"It's not a done deal, but it's likely" parliament will vote as planned, a source close to Juncker told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A source in Juncker's centre-right European People's Party added that there was a "95 percent chance of a vote on Wednesday."

If the vote is delayed, it would cast a shadow over a summit of European leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, during which they are supposed to rubber stamp the new commission.

The summit agenda is already difficult, with leaders facing tough talks on climate change targets for 2030, plus calls to do more to tackle the Ebola outbreak in Africa and the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria.

- Lame duck commission -

But it would also leave Barroso's commission as a lame-duck administration at a time of crisis, with the possibility that it could take until January or February before Juncker's team is pushed through, EU sources said.

Barroso's two previous commissions in 2004 and 2010 both took office late after commissioners were rejected.

World stocks plunged last week on fears of a triple dip recession in a stagnant eurozone economy that is flirting with deflation, and new worries about Greece.

Juncker's flagship plan for his first months in office is a 300-billion-euro ($380-billion) investment package to boost jobs and growth, and any delay would be a further blow to the eurozone.

The commission also faces an early test from the review it must carry out of budgets submitted by France and Italy that challenge the EU's strict fiscal rules imposed after the eurozone crisis.

Meanwhile any delay in approving the commission could also revive doubts about the "democratic deficit" in the EU, with increasingly alienated European voters watching Brussels tearing itself apart.

Slovenia's Bulc, a little-known deputy premier and telecoms entrepreneur, will be interviewed on Monday for the post of transport commissioner. Ljubljana nominated her after parliament rejected the previous candidate, former prime minister Alenka Bratusek.

Slovakia's Maros Sefcovic will also be interviewed on Monday after Juncker moved him from the transport role to become vice president for energy union, the role originally earmarked for Bratusek.

Political leaders will then meet to evaluate the hearings and make a decision on Tuesday, the day before the planned vote.

Parliamentary sources said they were both likely to be approved, despite doubts over Bulc's lack of experience and a fondness for New Age views that has been lampooned on social media.

"Unless she starts giving bizarre answers, there won't be any problems," the EPP source said.

"For us, the most important thing is to let the commission start work," added a source in the socialist group in parliament.

France and Germany have been privately pressing the European Parliament to get the Commission through on time, EU sources said.