Reformer Boel may take over as next EU Farm Commissioner
She is an advocate of radical CAP reform, and her appointment would not be good news for Irish farmers.
Beet growers and processors in her own country were not sorry to see her depart to Brussels; she supports total liberalisation of the EU sugar regime even though it could cost 1,000 jobs in Denmark.
But Boel could be the ideal appointment to push the European Commission's current sugar reform proposal through the EU's Council of Ministers.
The 61-year-old Liberal Party representative has been Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries in Denmark since from 2001.
She has replaced Dutch agriculture minister Cees Veerman as front runner to succeed Franz Fischler; Veerman was not nominated for the Commission by the Netherlands.
However, the ideal outcome for the Danish Government is that Fisheries gets a portfolio of its own separate from agriculture, and that Boel is put in charge of it.
This could throw the Agriculture post open to all-comers, and possible contenders from the EU 15 would include Italy's Rocco Buttiglione, Ireland's Charlie McCreevy, and Greece's Stavros Dimas.
Policy portfolios in European Commission President José Durão Barroso's new administration will be chosen no later than August 27.
Out of the 25-strong team there are 11 new faces, mainly drawn from national ministerial posts. Among them are two former prime ministers and three foreign ministers.
