Enlargement
Verheugen (54) takes over a portfolio of enormous interest to Germany - the expansion of the EU to the east. Germany already has large and growing economic interests in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia and Verheugen will be responsible for monitoring the countdown to their joining the EU early in the new millennium. A former journalist, he served Germany's Social Democrats as foreign affairs adviser in various capacities since 1982 and Gerhard Schroder made him European minister in the Social Democrat-led government formed in October.