Polish Science Minister likely to get EU top job

One of more important posts in the European Commission will be taken from September by a Pole, Michał Kleiber, the present Science Minister in the Polish government. He will become the director of the European Research Center, according to Rzeczpospolita. Unfortunately, his promotion may block the nominations of other Poles to other important EU posts. The Commission wants at least one representative of each of the new EU members to hold a significant post. Professor Kleiber will be in charge of the work of 2,000 European scientists and will control an annual budget of EUR 400 million. He envisages the creation of a research institute in Poland which would deal with food safety. (Rzeczpospolita, July 19, pp. A1, A5) A.F.