Indeed.

The candidate cannot be in active opposition in the country they're from. (Given that appointing an opposition figure could be viewed as a middle-finger salute to the government in question, that seems like a sensible constraint.) For a PES candidate, this means Austria, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain or Britain. Maybe Cyprus.

The candidate has to be proposed (or at least agreed to) by the prime minister of the country in question, especially given that this would be the single Commissioner from the country. It is possible for a country to nominate a politician from opposition if there is some sort of power-sharing agreement in the home country analogous to the way that the European Parliament chair was shared by the PES and EPP in two half-terms.

Take Élisabeth Guigou. Sarkozy would have to 1) want to nominate a PS member; 2) want to give up the French Commissioner post for this.

The country in question must be willing to let go of another portfolio. That rules out Portugal.

Also Spain, given that Zapatero wanted Almunia to have a second term in the Commission, and apparently there was an agreement with Barroso on this. Moratinos was suggested by Sarkozy, but Sarkozy doesn't get to decide the Spanish Commissioner. This is similar to Asselborn's quip that (paraphrasing) "it is none of Sarko's business to tell the PES that Blair is a suitable Socialist for them to nominate".

Then we're down to Britain, Austria and Greece. And that's stretching the definition of "mid-sized."

Were Austria and Greece considered "small" anyway, or did they not really want the job? The name of Ursula Plassnik was floated, but she was a Conservative! So, on size, it was "Britain or Spain" as the article explicitly states at one point. But Zapatero didn't want the job and Brown did.

Now look at the British slate:

• Tony Blair - ruled out by the PES at large
  
• David Miliband - ruled himself out
  
• Peter Mandelson - nicknamed The Prince of Darkness
  
• Geoff Hoon
  
• Catherine Ashton

The positives of Catherine Ashton in the view of the PES leadership assembled at the Austrian Permanent Representation are spelled out in the article.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma