BRUSSELS, June 17 (Reuters) – European Union leaders ended a discussion on who should take the bloc’s top jobs for the next five years without agreement on Monday, aiming instead for a decision at a summit next week.
The leaders’ meeting was the first since the European Parliament election, which saw gains for the centre-right and right-wing nationalists, but humiliating defeats for French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Over dinner in Brussels, the EU’s 27 national leaders discussed who should run the powerful European Commission executive body, who should chair their European Council meetings and who should take the post of foreign policy chief.
They had been widely expected to nominate Ursula von der Leyen of Germany for a second term as European Commission chief, Portuguese ex-premier Antonio Costa as Council president and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as top diplomat.
But the current European Council president, Charles Michel, said they needed more time.
“It was a good conversation, (it) goes in the right direction, I think. But there is no agreement tonight,” he told reporters after the dinner.
Michel said pan-European political parties had made proposals about the posts and more work would be needed to reach an agreement. He did not elaborate on the proposals.
POLE POSITION
Von der Leyen remains in pole position to stay on as European Commission president, buoyed by gains in the June 6-9 elections for her centre-right European People’s Party.
Thirteen of the 27 EU leaders are from parties belonging to the EPP. With French and German support too, she would have the qualified majority she requires to be nominated.
France had previously weighed alternatives to von der Leyen, but with a snap parliamentary election called by Macron from June 30, the government now prefers EU stability. Germany has made clear it backs von der Leyen for another term.
A trio of von der Leyen, Costa – a veteran socialist – and liberal Kallas would ensure a political and geographical balance among the top posts.
The leaders are due to make a formal decision at a summit on June 27-28. Von der Leyen would still then need backing from the European Parliament, which votes in its first session from July 16.
The full 27-member Commission, including the foreign policy chief, also needs parliamentary support.
The leaders also discussed the next five-year legislative cycle, with a stress on common values, defence and economic competitiveness. They are due to confirm their “strategic agenda” guidance at the end-June summit.
The leaders should shortly have a report by Mario Draghi, former Italian premier and president of the European Central Bank, on boosting the EU’s economic prospects. In a speech on Friday, he said the bloc needed cheaper energy and a capital markets union to steer private savings towards investment.
Andrew Gray is Reuters’ European Affairs Editor. Based in Brussels, he covers NATO and the European Union and leads a pan-European team of reporters focused on diplomacy, defence and security. A journalist for almost 30 years, he has previously been based in the UK, Germany, Geneva, the Balkans, West Africa and Washington, where he reported on the Pentagon. He covered the Iraq war in 2003 and contributed a chapter to a Reuters book on the conflict. He has also worked at Politico Europe as a senior editor and podcast host, served as the main editor for a fellowship programme for journalists from the Balkans, and contributed to the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent radio show.
Jan is the Deputy Bureau Chief for France and Benelux, running the Reuters office in Brussels. He has been covering European Union policy, focusing on economics, since 2005 after a five year assignment in Stockholm where he covered tech and telecoms stocks, the central bank and general news. Jan joined Reuters in 1993 in Warsaw from the main Polish TV news programme “Wiadomosci”, where he was a reporter and anchor for the morning news edition. Jan won the Reuters Journalist of the Year award in 2007 in the Scoop of the Year category, a second time in 2010 for his coverage of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and for the third time in 2011, this time as part of the Brussels team, for the Story of the Year. A Polish national, Jan graduated from Warsaw University with a Master’s in English literature. He is a keen sailor, photographer and bushcraft enthusiast.
