Ansip Remains Vague on Question of European Commission Post
During question time in Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip evaded attempts to get a definitive answer on whether he will be seeking a seat on the European Commission, reported uudised.err.ee.
"I have once, some time ago, already answered this question in a very precise fashion and the answer was such that I have not succeeded in perceiving this position as attractive for myself," Ansip said.
"But I admit that whether this position is attractive or not, whether it offers me sufficient self-relaization or not, is not the most important thing. More important is whether the government would appoint me as a candidate if the desire emerged," Ansip said, adding that a long line of other decision-makers, such as the EC president and the European Parliament, would decide in the end whether one or another candidate is fit for the job.
"So there are a lot of decision-makers, despite talk about candidate A, B or C. For that reason I will not even bother to speculate on all of these different potential scenarios," Ansip said.
All will come in time, he added. "We have not yet held negotiations with our government partners, so this question has not been dealt with on the government level."
In addition to Ansip, pundits in the summer speculated that Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and Minister of Economic Affairs Juhan Parts were also potential candidates.
The current Estonian in the European Commission is Siim Kallas, a fellow member of Ansip's party and a former prime minister.