Almost a full day after sitting down to pick candidates for the EU’s prime political posts, weary EU leaders yesterday broke off their talks amid deep divisions over who should run the union for at least the next five years.
After a full night of one-on-one meetings, trilateral talks and group discussions — including sitting down over breakfast — EU Council President Donald Tusk called a halt, and said the summit should reconvene at 11am today.
French President Emmanuel Macron lamented the meeting as a “failure,” and said the summit “gives an image of Europe that is not serious” due to the stalemate.
Photo: EPA-EFE
This failure should lead to “deep changes” to how the EU operates, he said.
The EU’s 28 leaders had been keen to show there is still life in the European project with quick decisions on a series of top-notch nominations for what are key portfolios.
However, their failure, yet again, to agree on any names highlights Europe’s changed political landscape following May’s elections to the European Parliament, which saw the two historically dominant center-right and left groups lose seats to the far-right and populists, as well as to pro-business and pro-environment parties.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It will continue,” Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told reporters after the summit broke off, and leaders left, many without saying much to reporters.
“It’s a bit complicated,” he said, after more than 17 hours of official deliberations, plus hours of sideline meetings.
The aim had been to pick at least three of five top jobs up for renewal, most of them by November, including the post of president of the European Commission, currently held by Jean-Claude Juncker; the presidents of the European Council and the European Parliament, and the EU’s foreign policy chief.
The European Central Bank chairman’s job was to be decided later.
After a night of talks that started Sunday afternoon, it had all appeared on track by mid-morning.
As some reporters slumped asleep over their desks, a high-ranking diplomat involved in the deliberations said that former Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans was favorite to become the next commission president.
Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva from the center-right European People’s Party group looked likely to follow Tusk as head of the council.
An EU official later said that Georgieva was part of the reason for the holdup. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to play down the impasse, saying it was worth spending a little more time to achieve a broadly accepted agreement.
Merkel said the leaders put off their quest to fill the top posts, because there were “big member states that couldn’t live ... with the proposals we had today.”
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