Jerome a Paris:

To list the non-competence related criteria:
explicit:

• one man, one woman;
  
• one left-wing, one right-wing;
  
• the High Representative takes away the commissioner from its country of origin;
  
• some geographic balance, considering that the EP president is from Poland and the Commission President from Portugal/Iberia;

I guess this makes van Rompuy the "token male right-wing" and Ashton the "token female left-wing"?

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma