Bulgaria's parliament voted hurriedly the dismissal of Meglena Kuneva, who served as EU Affairs Minister and was approved in Strasbourg as the country's first EU commissioner.

Kuneva will come into her Brussels office on the first day of the new year. She will take over the consumer protection portfolio, previously held by Public Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

It was only on Wednesday that Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev signed the decree for Kuneva's dismissal. A day before their Christmas recess, the MPs once again were forced to vote an important decision in the last minute.

It is still not clear whether the government will remove or keep the prestigious office of EU Affairs Minister next year. Two candidates are reportedly vying to assume the chair - leftist Andriana Sukova - Tosheva, executive director at the Bulgarian International Business Association (BIBA), and centrist Gergana Grancharova, Deputy Foreign Affairs minister.

Meglena Kuneva came from the centrist movement of former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg and now the socialists say the new Brussels job should satisfy the appetites of her party.

The odds are that the two parties will not manage to settle the score themselves. As usual, the "Great Troika", made up of ruling coalition leaders, will have the final say.

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