The EU has begun the process of appointing commissioners from the 10 new states that are due to join next month. The BBC has a small report about the process where this one paragraph caught my eye…

The first to be interviewed by the European Parliament, Latvia’s former foreign minister Sandra Kalniete, was born in Siberia, where her parents were deported after the Soviet invasion of the Baltic countries in the 1940s.

While I can honestly say I’d never expected a Russian born EU commissioner, I somehow doubt that she will be too pro-Russian!