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The negotiations between the Greek parties on the person they will nominate as EU Commissioner is entering its final phase as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will have to announce their preference to Athens next week. This will probably happen at the next European Council in Brussels. A number of names have been present in the public space for some time but observers do not exclude surprises.
     Chronologically, the first name that appeared was that of former governor of the Bank of Greece George Provopoulos whose discharge from the important post was adopted with disapproval on the part of the coalition partner in the government, the socialists of PASOK. Now it seems that the socialists are uniting around Dimitris Kourkoulas, Deputy Foreign Minister and a loyal associate of PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos. Kourkoulas, who is also a former representative of the European Commission in Bulgaria, however, is facing the strong disapproval of the deputies of the ruling New Democracy party.
     In the blue circles, the focus is on former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis and former Minister of Development Kostas Hatzidakis. Bakoyannis is not hiding her ambitions for the European Commission and for the position of "foreign minister" in particular, for which Bulgarian Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva is considered very suitable as well. It is known that the foreign minister is elected after intense interstate negotiations in which the ambitions of Italy are serious too. The election of Dora Bakoyannis as the Greek representative in the new European Commission, however, will bring many benefits to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras within the party.