Here's what you need to know about each new EU chief

However, nothing is ever simple in the EU and only the president of the European Parliament – Italian ex-journalist David Sassoli – takes up his new post immediately after two rounds of voting in Strasbourg.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel can take up his post as European Council president in November, without further formalities.

Nominations for the remaining roles will be be formally approved by MEPs in a couple of weeks’ time and the candidates are an interesting bunch. Here, we look at what they can bring to the posts for which they are in line.

David Sassoli, European Parliament president

A 63-year-old former journalist, now a centre-left Italian politician, Sassoli beat three other candidates to become the parliament’s speaker, replacing another Italian Antonio Tajani.

Sassoli was born in Florence, has been a MEP since 2009 and will lead the parliament until January 2022.

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In an address immediately after the Strasbourg vote, he spoke of an “imperfect” union which was in need of reform.

He said: “We must have the strength to relaunch our integration process, changing our union so to be able to respond more strongly to the needs of our citizens and give real answers to their concerns, to their increasingly widespread sense of loss.”

One of those concerns was the fate of asylum seekers and the need to reform how the EU handles them: “You can’t continue to kick this down the road. We don’t want citizens asking, ‘where’s Europe’ every time an emergency happens.”

Sassoli described Brexit as “painful”, and added: “The European Parliament will guarantee the independence of European citizens - only they are able to determine their history.”

Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president

Germany’s Defence Minister, a doctor and mother of seven was born in Brussels little more than 60 years ago and would be the first woman to hold this commission job.

She is a Christian Democrat ally of Angela Merkel and had once – briefly – been seen as her successor. Under Merkel she held a variety of ministerial posts in the departments of family, health and defence.

Until taking over at defence, her career trajectory was mostly solid, and while she set about tackling the problems of Germany’s armed forces (Bundeswehr) one by one, her tenure saw delays in major arms projects, right-wing extremist activities in the forces and humiliating practices affecting new recruits.

Von der Leyen then distanced herself from the Bundeswehr, claiming they were affected by an “attitude problem”, which did her no favours.

However, she has contributed to establishing the structure of the EU defence union, saying: “A European army as a long-term goal and NATO are not opposites but, to me, two sides of the same coin, because it’s important that the Europeans make up a strong pillar within NATO, not just in order to uphold NATO’s credibility but also to have a strong European voice.”

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB)

Lagarde, 63, could become the first woman and second French national to hold the presidency of the ECB and said she was honoured to be nominated.

She became the first female managing director of the IMF in 2011 and was re-elected for a second term in 2016. Before joining the IMF, she worked in a series of French government posts and was finance and economy minister before leaving to join the IMF. Ranked one of the world’s most powerful women by Forbes, the Parisian was once a member of the French national synchronised swimming team.

She was found guilty of negligence for her failure to challenge a €400 million (£358.9m) state pay-out to controversial businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008, when she was finance minister.

Although she denied the negligence charges, she did not appeal against her conviction.

Charles Michel, EU Council president

The 43-year-old replacement for Donald Tusk currently leads Belgium’s caretaker government as the youngest prime minister since 1845.

He became Home Affairs Minister in the Walloon government in 2000 – the youngest minister in Belgium’s history.

Over the past three years, he has been one of the most outspoken critics of the UK’s approach to Brexit, and particularly British political in-fighting and Theresa May’s inability to deal with her own parliament.

As May sought further concessions in March, Michel said: “We come here to take note that once again the British are telling us what they don’t want, but, good grief, could they tell us finally what they do want.”

Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

One of the only things Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell has in his favour is his view that Spain would have no objection to Scotland re-joining the European Union as an independent nation.

However, he added that the secession process from the UK had to be legally binding.

In what was seen as a warning to pro-independence Catalans, he said: “If Westminster agrees, why should we be against it? I think the United Kingdom will split apart before Spain.”

The 72-year-old is outspoken and often termed abrasive. The son of a Catalan baker who used to help his father deliver bread in villages by donkey, Borrell has stormed out of interviews when asked questions he doesn’t like.

Last year he was fined €30,000 (£30,500) for insider trading and has been described by human rights lawyer Ben Emmerson as the EU’s “own Donald Trump”.

Such is Emmerson’s disdain of Borrell, he has started a social media campaign to stop his appointment, writing on Twitter: “His appointment must be stopped ... It is in the interests of all European citizens to #StopBorrell. The man is a disaster for the EU and will bring the whole European project into disrepute.”