PM flirts name of Danuta Huebner as first EU commissioner

A few months before joining the EU, the government will have to choose its first commissioner to send to Brussels. According to Polish diplomats, the front-runner is the Minister for European Affairs Danuta Huebner. Brussels' officials appreciate her role in helping bring negotiations to a successful end last year. The EU would find it hard to accept a representative of the Polish Peasants Party, while the government would not accept any politician from the opposition such as Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski or Piotr Nowina-Konopka. The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has other candidates for the post of the commissioner, like head of the Sejm European Commission Jozef Oleksy or Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz. According to Rzeczpospolita sources, the Prime Minister stated during unofficial meetings that, "The first Polish commissioner will be a woman". (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A5) M.M. Record-breaking $20 million drugs seizure in Gdynia Customs authorities seized 400kg of pure cocaine on Friday in one of the country's largest hauls and arrested several people suspected of smuggling the narcotic from Venezuela. "Acting on a tip-off, agents found the consignment, worth $20 million, concealed in oil industry equipment on a Dutch ship docked in the port of Gdynia," said customs spokeswoman Jolanta Twardowska. The shipment would, after being cut with other ingredients as it passes down the dealer chain, be enough to make more than a million "lines". "That means 1.2 million people would have been able to take the drug once," said prosecutor Konrad Kornatowski. (Reuters) A.Z.