STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- Nine of the 27 candidates to be the European Union's new commissioners are women, the commission president announced Tuesday -- the first time that so many women have been nominated for senior EU posts.

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says he now has a full list of candidates for the next EU executive, a powerful body that drafts EU laws and can order European governments to fall in line with the bloc's rules.

The Dutch government named Neelie Kroes as their representative on Tuesday while Denmark put forward climate minister Connie Hedegaard. They will join women from Sweden, Ireland, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Luxembourg.

Last week, in another first, EU leaders named Britain's Catherine Ashton to the bloc's highest foreign policy post and as a deputy commission president.

Barroso must now assign them jobs. Kroes has held one of the few really powerful posts -- as EU competition commissioner, she fined Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. billions of euros (dollars).

The 27 commissioners-designate must be approved by the European Parliament where lawmakers can quiz them on their suitability for the job. If all get the nod, the new Commission can take office in late January.

Besides drafting EU laws, the commission represents the EU in global trade talks and at summits. Its antitrust rules have made the EU head office a powerful watchdog whose rulings and opinions get the attention of corporations worldwide who want to do business with the EU's 500 million consumers.

Denmark expects Hedegaard to be named the EU's first climate affairs commissioner, while the Netherlands hopes that Kroes gets another term as the EU's antitrust chief.