Special meeting of the European Council to choose the candidates for EU top jobs
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The leaders of the European Union are meeting Sunday for talks on nominations for the EU’s top jobs at the Special European Council in Brussels, Belgium.
The discussions were set in the hope of an agreement on the possible candidates for the heads of EU institutions, namely European Council President, President of the European Commission, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Foreign Policy Chief), and President of the European Central Bank.
The meeting Sunday followed the informal dinner on 28 May 2019, directly after the EU elections, and subsequent consultations between President Donald Tusk and the heads of state or government and representatives of the European Parliament.
Member states and EU lawmakers have been deadlocked ever since EU elections in May handed losses to the centre-right and centre-left parties but strengthened the liberals and Greens.
European Council President Donald Tusk (R) meets with Renew Europe party members Guy Verhofstadt (2-L) and Daclan Ciolos (L) on the sidelines of a Special European Council in Brussels, Belgium, 30 June 2019. . EPA-EFE/VIRGINIA MAYO / POOL
After EU leaders nominate candidates, they must secure majority backing in the European Parliament. The parliament has insisted that the commission president be chosen from the top candidates who stood for their respective parties in May’s elections – a stance that has drawn steady opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron.
On Saturday, however, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that leaders are increasingly likely to pick the next commission president out of a group of top candidates put forward by the parliament.
Merkel said that Manfred Weber, a German EU lawmakers from the centre-right European People’s Party, and Frans Timmermans, of the Socialists, were definitely part of the solution in the leadership debate.
