The new president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has announced his team of commissioners for the 2014-2019 period, and his chosen appointees are now facing scrutiny by members of the European parliament before they can be officially confirmed into their posts.

Britain has arguably secured its most-prized job in Europe, with Jonathan Hill obtaining the financial services portfolio. Among his duties will be to oversee reforms to build a European ‘capital markets union’ to ease access to finance for companies and infrastructure projects and reduce Europe’s dependence on bank funding.

Yet, despite all this he has been finding himself under pressure, with MEPs calling him back for a second session of questioning, citing his thoughts as ‘insufficient’ and ‘unsatisfactory at the present time’.

But although this decision can be interpreted as an indication of how seriously Juncker’s commission will take the need to solve ‘the British question’ ahead of a possible in-out referendum, it is also imperative that the United Kingdom government take its responsibility seriously to negotiate reform of the European Union.

In addition to the great constitutional questions now being asked, David Cameron will inevitably, along with Foreign Office, Department for Business Innovation and Skills and the Treasury, need to switch his attention back to the EU and Britain’s place within it. And with the prospect of the United Kingdom Independence party taking at least one seat in Westminster in the next few weeks, the subject of Britain’s place within the EU will continually come into focus in the months leading to the 2015 general election.

With just three years to claim any kind of meaningful reform until a possible in-out referendum of the UK’s membership of the EU, Cameron must hastily cast aside the somewhat amateur diplomacy that he has so far shown and develop positive working relationships with the new set of EU commissioners and other heads of government. Failure to do so will quite simply mean that he achieves nothing and Britain’s future in the EU becomes even more precarious than it is presently.

However, the announcement of project teams for ‘A new boost for jobs, growth and investment’ and ‘A connected digital single market’ could provide the UK with a number of opportunities to push a reform-oriented agenda. UK businesses export goods worth £150bn to the UK economy to EU markets, and with the digital economy that is growing at seven times the rate of the rest of the economy, Britain must be at the heart of discussions for strengthening the single market. Indeed, the UK should and must be at the forefront of these discussions, so that we can the number of jobs and raise wages for our citizens.

It will therefore be essential that both Hill and the UK government work closely not only with Juncker, but also Andreas Ansip (vice-president of the commission for the digital single market), Jyrki Katainen (vice-president of the commission for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness), Elżbieta Bieńkowska (commissioner for the internal market) and Cecilia Malmström (trade commissioner). Doing so effectively will give Britain, and the other EU member states, the best opportunity to negotiate economic reforms so that EU citizens can enjoy greater sovereignty and economic prosperity.

In the meantime, Labour must continue to scrutinise the government’s activities around EU reform. The shadow Treasury and business teams owe it to the British people to ensure that the government seeks proper, well thought-out reform, and does not pander to Ukip and engineer a ‘Brexit’.

When Juncker and his commissioners take office in November, Britain’s future in the EU will never have been more uncertain. The actions of the UK government in the next few years could well determine the outcome of a referendum on EU membership. Labour must ensure that it works in the interests of the British people.

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Callum Anderson is a Labour activist and blogger

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Photo: European Parliament