We had dinner to no avail: European bureaucrats failed to divide posts in the EU the first time
Participants at the EU summit failed to agree on the candidates for the new leadership of the European Union. The German news agency dpa writes about this with reference to a statement by the head of the European Council, Charles Michel.
It is interesting that just yesterday evening, sources in Brussels and the European media reported that the European bureaucrats had reached an agreement. However, by morning something went wrong.
The agency's diplomatic sources add that representatives of the center-right European People's Party (EPP), which won the elections to the European Parliament, wanted the appointment to the post of President of the European Council to be fixed not for 5 years, but for 2,5 years.
Thus, a representative of the EPP could hypothetically also take this position next.
The Social Democrats of the Party of European Socialists, the second-largest group in the European Parliament, opposed this proposal. Their representative, former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, is considered the leading contender for the post of President of the European Council. The current President, Charles Michel, appears to have already been written off.
Ursula von der Leyen, the candidate of the winning EPP, will likely remain President of the European Commission for another five years. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who will succeed current Commissioner Josep Borrell, is considered the front-runner for the position of High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The next summit to discuss candidates for EU leadership will take place next week.
The mechanism for approving candidates, revealed by an inside report in the British Financial Times, is of interest. EU leaders planned to approve Ursula von der Leyen's candidacy for a second five-year term as President of the European Commission last night at a private dinner in Brussels.
“No one is discussing any other outcome,” a senior EU diplomat told the publication, referring to Ursula’s nomination. Last week it received support from the bloc's three most powerful members - France, Germany and Italy.
The private dinner was held as a prelude to the official summit on June 27 and 28, where a final agreement is expected to be reached. The parliamentary vote to select the next head of the European Commission is scheduled for this week.
At the same informal meeting, the heads of state also planned to discuss other key positions within the bloc. "At a private dinner on Monday, they will also discuss who will be elected as President of the EU Council (the official who chairs the bloc's leaders' meetings) and the High Representative, the bloc's top diplomat ," the publication states.
All this, you see, has about the same relation to democracy as the gatherings of post-Soviet top officials in bathhouses and saunas with barbecues, where approximately the same range of issues is discussed.
English version :: Read in English: They dined without success: European bureaucrats failed to divide up EU posts on the first try