"Duitser raakt voorzitterschap EP-commissie buitenlandse zaken kwijt" (en)

German conservative MEP Elmar Brok will lose his job as chairman of the European Parliament foreign affairs committee, the EPP-ED group is to announce on Thursday morning (25 January) with the position set to go to Polish deputy Jacek Saryusz-Wolski or fellow Pole Bogdan Klich, Polish and German press report.

Political group leaders in the parliament gave up on Mr Brok in Wednesday talks because the Poles asked for too much in return for supporting the German, with the Polish Civic Platform party gunning for - among other things - the budget committee chair and Mr Saryusz-Wolski becoming a "first-place" EPP-ED vice president.

"Further negotiations are pointless because the Civic Platform have given us inflated conditions," a German conservative source told Gazeta Wyborcza. "Joseph Daul [the new EPP-ED leader] did not want to push to create an extra vice-president post for Saryusz-Wolski," another German contact told Rzeczpospolita.

On top of this, sources say Mr Brok was backed by too few of his fellow German conservative MEPs despite pro-Brok lobbying by German chancellor Angela Merkel, ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl, Austrian ex-chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker and Croat leader Ivo Sanader.

The Poles had the right to the post under parliament's so-called D'Hondt calculus for allocating posts. Mr Saryusz-Wolski is a heavy-hitter in the Civic Platform party and was at one stage tipped to be Polish foreign minister, but Mr Klich is more popular among colleagues after running the Belarus delegation since 2004.

The foreign affairs job carries much prestige as the face of the European Parliament to the outside world, involving high-level foreign trips and guests. But its already limited powers may be reduced still further if proposals to hive off human rights and defence into separate committees come to pass.

Meanwhile, German conservatives will lead the budget committee in a period that could see major reforms to the common agricultural policy and will chair the industry committee, which will deal with any new legislation on roaming, CO2 emissions and energy efficiency - potentially the biggest legal projects between 2007 and 2009.

The reshuffle will mean the end of an era for parliament - Mr Brok has chaired the committee for over 10 years.

But the change will also soften the image of Germany monopolising EU institutions at a time when Berlin holds the EU presidency, German Hans-Gert Poettering is parliament president, and German Martin Schulz leads the socialist group.

It is not yet known where Mr Brok will end up or how his move will affect the rest of the parliamentary departments, with the final decisions on committee composition to be made at the mini-plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

"There will be a cascade effect on all the other committees," a parliament official said. "If you drop Brok, then you will have a spare chairman knocking around."