EU leaders remain divided over who to name to the bloc’s top jobs, after elections shredded comfortable old political alliances and raised troubling questions about the future of the European project.
At a summit in Brussels on Tuesday, major powers France, Germany and Spain all differed over who is best suited to lead the EU’s powerful executive arm, the European Commission, for the next five years.
Former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker heads the commission, which proposes EU laws and ensures they are respected, until Oct. 31.
Photo: AFP
After voters turned out for last week’s European Parliament elections in numbers not seen in 20 years, the leaders want to show they can respond quickly to people’s concerns.
The aim is to name all four top jobs — commission president, a replacement for European Council President Donald Tusk, a new foreign policy chief and head of the European Central Bank — at a summit on June 21 and June 22.
Avoiding any mention of the differences or candidate names, Tusk said the leaders hope “we can provide clarity on all these posts already in June,” but he said that “this depends not only my good will, but also on the good will of everyone involved.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose party is joining forces with a new pro-business liberal group in the European Parliament for the first time, said that the choices should represent the new political project that European voters are demanding.
“The new order means one thing: It’s that we cannot just repeat the old habits,” Macron told reporters.
“It is important to me that these nominations have parity, that we have two men and two women. It is important for me to have the best profiles possible,” he said, adding that there must “be balance in terms of political leanings and in terms of geography.”
Other leaders, too, said the aim is to have two women in top posts.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the summit as “good and harmonious,” even though Macron virtually ruled out the prospect of her favorite, Manfred Weber, replacing Juncker.
He suggested that the leader of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament lacked solid experience.
Weber has never served in government or at a major institution such as the European Commission. He has led the party since 2014, but the group suffered major losses in the election.
Macron said Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager, who is now the EU’s competition commissioner, would be a suitable replacement, as would Michel Barnier, the Frenchman who has led the EU’s Brexit negotiations with the UK.
Getting Barnier to head the commission would mark a fillip for Macron following the strong showing of the French far-right in the elections.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threw his political weight behind the Socialists’ candidate, Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch minister of foreign affairs and Juncker’s right-hand man.
“We will support Frans,” Sanchez said. “He has the experience not only at the national level, but also at the European level to lead the commission.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique