Brussels  - In a memorable 1970 sketch, British comedy team Monty Python took a swipe at government bureaucracy by inaugurating the "Ministry of Silly Walks."

In it, a Mr Putey asked the ministry to grant him funds to help him improve his not-so-silly walk.

Python's sketch was designed to make people laugh.

But after Thursday's decision to keep a full-scale executive for the European Union, observers in Brussels are starting to wonder whether the European Commission might risk a similarly Pythonesque fate.

The current executive has 27 "cabinet ministers" or commissioners - one for every member state of the EU.

According to new rules agreed under the Lisbon Treaty, its size was meant to shrink by a third from 2014. The idea was to improve decision-making in a bloc that has expanded since 2004 to accommodate 12 new countries.

But EU leaders scrapped that rule on Thursday in a bid to appease Ireland, whose voters rejected the treaty in a June referendum. A subsequent report found that Ireland's voters' aversion to Lisbon was partly created by concerns that their country would lose influence in Brussels by not being able to appoint its own commissioner.

As a result, the one-country, one-commissioner rule is set to remain in place beyond 2014.

This prompts an interesting question: What new posts will have to be created when more countries finally join the bloc?

When the previous executive headed by Romano Prodi took office in 1999 it had 20 commissioners.

But in order to also give new member states a seat in the Brussels cabinet, officials have been forced to create seven new commissioners since 2004.

Malta, for instance, was given the commission for maritime affairs and fisheries - a previously non-existent post formerly covered by the agriculture and fisheries commissioner.

An Estonian was placed in charge of the newly-created post of administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud.

And Romania's EU accession in 2007 was rewarded with the unheard- of post of commissioner for multi-lingualism - a job widely derided in Brussels as less than vital to the EU's interests.

With up to 11 countries now knocking on the club's door, could we one day see the commission go from Monty Python to Montenegro?

Of the countries wishing to join the EU, five come from the former Yugoslavia - Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. A sixth Yugoslav splinter
- Slovenia - joined in 2004.

How are all of them to be pleased?

Commissioners, of course, are not meant to represent their countries. This is a shame, since potential future candidates could have drawn on their experiences back home.

The former Yugoslav countries, for instance, could have aimed for "commissioner for Balkan affairs," or "commissioner for ethnic harmony," assuming, of course, that the six could ever agree on which one of them should hold such a post.

Iceland, meanwhile, could be faced with the choice of either "commissioner for Artic preservation" or "commissioner in charge of the prevention of financial meltdowns."

In keeping with the EU's tradition of creating futile posts, a future commission president could assign the "commission for promoting public transport" to Albania or Turkey, while Ukraine and Georgia could grapple over the "commission for getting energy supplies from anybody but Russia."

As for Croatia, which is widely tipped to become the EU's 28th member in 2010, the choice is easy - "commissioner for creating new commissioners." (dpa)