Poolse minister Danuta Huebner kandidaat voor Europese Commissie per 1 mei (en)

Polish minister for Europe Danuta Hübner is set to be the Polish EU Commissioner from 1 May 2004, according to the Gazeta Wyborcza.

According to the newspaper, Prime Minister Leszek Miller, decided to propose Ms Hübner for the post in Brussels last week, following talks with President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

The official decision on a nomination will be announced in the upcoming days.

Ms Hübner would be the third woman to be proposed from the new member states along with Latvian candidate Sandra Kalniete and Dalia Grybauskaite from Lithuania.

The candidature of Ms Hübner for European commissioner is not a surprise in Poland. However the centre-right opposition has criticized her on several occasions for not defending Polish interests enough both in the European Convention which drew up the EU Constitution and during membership talks with Brussels

Last year she survived a vote of non-confidence in the Sejm, lower house of the Polish Parliament.