EU leaders failed to reach agreement as their summit ended early on Thursday over who should get the top jobs to steer the 28-nation bloc over the next five years.
The outcome was “unfortunate but not dramatic,” said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who stands down later this year.
“My conclusion was that we were not yet at the point where we could get a consensual solution on a whole package,” Van Rompuy said after the talks dragged on into the early hours on Thursday.
There will be another summit on Aug. 30, he said, adding he was “certain that ... we will reach a decision” then.
Early hopes for a decision on who would replace Britain’s Catherine Ashton as foreign affairs head, a coveted high-profile job, faded from the start, putting the summit in immediate difficulty.
Without agreement on this key position, finding a new president of the European Council, which represents the 28 national leaders and sets overall policy direction, became even more difficult.
Rejecting suggestions of a setback, Van Rompuy said such decisions took time.
“I knew quite well that we might not reach a decision,” he said, adding that once Ashton’s replacement is named, “this will all fall into place quite quickly.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had played down expectations that any appointment decisions be made even before leaders sat down at the summit table.
At the close of the meeting, Merkel said she was “fully confident we will get there, step by step, stage by stage.”
However, French President Francois Hollande said at a press conference that the next EU top diplomat “will be a woman, taking into consideration what we must present as the image of Europe.”
He also said European socialists want a left-wing foreign affairs chief.
“It is better to not have a deal, because it’s not yet possible to agree on a whole package of nominations,” Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said as she left the meeting.
Grybauskaite had made clear from the start that Lithuania, along with the other Baltic states and Poland, would not accept the early favorite, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, as Ashton’s replacement.
Diplomats had said an alternative to Mogherini could be current EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who is close to the center-right European People’s Party, the biggest single group in the European Parliament.
As Mogherini’s chances faded, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi tweeted: “What does Italy ask for? Not one post or another; it asks for respect.”
For the European Council, Social Democrat Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt enjoyed wide support, including from Britain, to replace Van Rompuy.
Once the top jobs are settled, then the EU embarks on the next round, deciding who gets which portfolio in the new 28-seat European Commission to be headed by Jean-Claude Juncker.
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