Vienna - Austria's government on Tuesday nominated Science Minister Johannes Hahn as a member of the next European Commission, Chancellor Werner Faymann said. The government said it was still unclear which portfolio Hahn might take over, but the minister told the daily Oesterreich last week that he wished for a future- and science-oriented job in Brussels.
The 51-year-old politician was chosen after weeks of wrangling between the chancellor's Social Democratic Party, and its junior partner in government, the centre-right People's Party.
Faymann said People's Party member Hahn has "broad knowledge and good experience," according to Austrian press agency APA.
As a minister since 2007, Hahn has had to face a number of setbacks.
At the moment, the minister is faced by students protests in several universities calling for more education funding.
In May, Hahn said Austria should end its cooperation with the European nuclear research centre CERN in Switzerland for budgetary reasons, but the plan was soon stopped by the Chancellor.
University tuition fees were scrapped against his will last year.
Hahn emerged as a compromise candidate as his People's Party favoured former Vice Chancellor Wilhelm Molterer, while the chancellor preferred current European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The two unsuccessful candidates are also members of the People's Party, which won the right to name the next commissioner after winning the European Parliament elections in June.
The current Science Commissioner is Janez Potocnik of Slovenia.
The present commission's mandate expires at the end of the month. However, confusion over EU rules means member states and the European Parliament have not been able to appoint a new commission because they do not know which rules to use.
EU leaders had hoped to make the appointment under the rules of the bloc's Lisbon Treaty, which is not yet in force, pending a decision by the Czech constitutional court.
