BRUSSELS, July 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — EU leaders meeting in Brussels remain divided over who should get the EU’s top jobs, including a successor to Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
Talks resumed over breakfast on Monday morning, after the member countries failed to reach agreement at the emergency summit convened on Sunday.
Summit chair Donald Tusk decided to have a break for bilateral talks.
Tusk and some leaders are said to be proposing Dutch centre-left politician Frans Timmermans for the top job.
But the appointment faces stiff opposition from eastern European states and centre-right leaders from the EU’s biggest political group.
All of the EU’s top jobs are changing hands this year, following European-wide elections in May.
Tense differences have emerged over the successors for the key roles.
The choices for the EU’s top jobs have to take account of last month’s European elections and achieve an acceptable balance regarding large and small states, gender and geography.
Under the “Spitzenkandidat” procedure the EU adopted in 2014, leaders are supposed to take into account which party won the most seats in the European Parliament when deciding roles including the European Commission presidency.
The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) got the most votes in the May elections, but it does not have a majority.
French President Emmanuel Macron is among those opposing their candidate, Germany’s Manfred Weber, and the “Spitzenkandidat” process.
The May elections also saw big gains for the liberals – including Macron’s alliance – and Greens, so the long-established centre-right and centre-left blocs can no longer dominate EU business. Nationalists also made gains.
The Commission drafts EU laws, oversees national budgets, enforces EU treaties and negotiates international trade deals.
The rare Sunday summit was called because EU leaders failed on June 20 to agree on candidates for the Commission president’s job and other top posts: European Council president (to replace Donald Tusk); high representative for foreign policy (to replace Federica Mogherini); European Parliament president and European Central Bank president.
“The vast majority of EPP prime ministers don’t believe that we should give up the presidency quite so easily, without a fight,” Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar said on Sunday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has long backed Manfred Weber for the top job, pitting her against President Macron and other critics who argue he lacks the necessary experience, as he has never held a government post.
Arriving at the Brussels summit, Merkel said “it looks like the talks won’t be very easy”.
Merkel and Macron are said to have hatched a compromise deal to support Timmermans, as part of a balanced deal, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan. — NNN-AGENCIES
