Hübner leads race to be country’s first commissioner

Date: 11/09/03

DANUTA Hübner, Poland's minister for European affairs, has emerged as favourite to net the post of her country's first EU commissioner.

A former employee with the UN's European Economic Commission, Hübner has the advantage of already being well-known in Brussels circles because she represented her country on the future of Europe Convention.

Approached by European Voice, Hübner declined to say if she was optimistic of receiving the job but conceded: "I cannot deny that I am a candidate."

She said that she expects Prime Minister Leszek Miller to make the decision on who to nominate to the Commission in the near future. The Poles are keen to secure one of the most influential portfolios in the next Commission, which will have members from the incoming member states from May next year, although they will not be conferred with voting rights until November.

Hübner's chief competitor in the commissioner race is fellow Convention member and ex-premier Józef Oleksy.

Oleksy, who resigned as prime minister in 1996 over allegations he had spied for the KGB and later the Russian secret service, has called for the decision about the commissioner nomination to be announced in conjunction with an EU affairs debate in the Polish parliament or Sejm next Tuesday (16 September).

According to The Warsaw Voice, other names on the shortlist for the crucial job include Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, his predecessor Bronislaw Geremek and Miller's foreign policy advisor Tadeusz Iwinski.

Meanwhile, there has been surprise in Slovakia at the decision by Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda to choose Coca-Cola executive Ivan Stefanec for the commissioner post. Some parties in Slovakia's ruling coalition would have preferred Jan Figel, who was the chief negotiator on the country's terms of EU entry, for the position.

The former chief EU negotiators in Hungary, Endre Juhas, and the Czech Republic, Pavel Telicka, are tipped for commissioner posts.

Telicka is already in Brussels, where he is currently Prague's EU envoy.

Danuta Hübner, Poland's minister for European affairs, has emerged as favourite to net the post of her country's first European Commissioner.