By Lewis Crofts - 14th January 2004
Former environment minister Milos Kuzvart has accepted an offer from Czech prime minister Vladimir Spidla to run for the post of European commissioner.
Agreement is still needed among the political parties, but Kuzvart has emerged the clear front-runner and Spidla is confident he is the only viable candidate.
“It’s all a question of further political discussions, but I believe that the position of Milos Kuzvart is so strong that he will turn out to be the only candidate,” said Spidla.
Debate has raged in Prague as to who would represent the Czech Republic in Brussels, but Spidla’s ruling socialist party (CSSD) finally settled on 43-year-old Kuzvart, who unlike other candidates was not a communist party member in the pre-1989 soviet era.
“Last week, I was contacted by the prime minister. I view this as a possibility of making use of my past experience, when I was, for example, a member of the cabinet,” commented Kuzvart.
The Social Democrats (CSSD) have a majority in the Czech cabinet so the outlook is good for Kuzvart.
Others picked by their parties such as former ICC Yugoslavia judge Ivana Janu and the conservative (ODS) candidate Bedrich Moldan are unlikely to get a look in with Spidla making it clear he wants the candidate to come from his ruling CSSD party.
“If the ODS has no other choice, we’ll accept Mr Kuzvart as candidate,” said a pokesman for the opposition party ODS.
Prague must submit its candidate by February to give European Commission president Romano Prodi time to vet the ten new names before they start their six month post on May 1.
With the Latvian and Lithuanian candidates in the bag, Prodi has received the first nomination for a male commissioner: Dr Joe Borg, Malta's foreign minister.
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