24/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 October, the European Commission appointed the Polish ambassador at the Political and Security Committee (COPS), Maceij Popowski, to the post of director of Unit A (development policy and horizontal affairs) at DG Development and Relations with ACP States. His appointment takes the number of Polish directors at the European Commission to seven. Poland is entitled to have a further 9 director or senior advisor posts (16 in total) until the end of the transition period on 31 December 2010 (this date applies to the 10 member states which joined the EU on 1 May 2004; the date of 31 December 2011 will apply for Bulgaria and Romania). A total of 54 director-level posts are earmarked for citizens of the new member states until these two deadlines: 1 each for Cyprus, Malta and Estonia, 2 each for Latvia and Slovenia, 3 each for Lithuania and Slovakia, 6 each for the Czech Republic and Hungary, 16 for Poland, 9 for Romania and 4 for Bulgaria. (A.BY.)