Danuta Hubner named as head of EU big budget regional policy department

Despite earlier speculation that Danuta Hübner will become the deputy head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso who heads the Commission from the autumn, announced that she will be the EU commissioner for regional policy. This post is of key importance in the EU since the funds for regional policy amount to one third of the EUR100 billion yearly EU budget. According to the preliminary estimations between 2007 and 2013 around EUR340 billion will be spent on regional policy, out of which around EUR70 billion will be allotted to Poland. "I am very glad. This is the most interesting field for the Polish commissioner and tremendously important as well," said Hübner. (Gazeta Wyborcza, ) E.B.