(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel endorsed Manfred Weber and Frans Timmermans as the candidates left in the race to lead the European Union’s executive arm.
Without mentioning them by name, Merkel made clear that the center-right German, from her political family, and the center-left Dutchman are the official and only contenders to head the European Commission. That leaves liberal Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, out of the race.
“Both Spitzenkandidaten, whom I would call the only real Spitzenkandidaten, are in the race and have both made sure that the Spitzenkandidaten process will remain in the future,” Merkel said on Saturday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. “We are on a path which will maybe make a solution possible tomorrow.”
At stake at Sunday’s summit of EU leaders is the direction of the region as it carves out its role in an international system in the era of U.S. President Donald Trump. The replacements for Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will need to navigate a world beset by trade tensions at a time when Europe’s economy remains hooked on stimulus.
Timmermans, vice president of the outgoing commission and official nominee of the European Socialists, has emerged as the favorite to take over from Juncker, according to an EU official from a Socialist government.
French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out Weber and indicated there had been a breakthrough in Osaka among key players ahead of a summit in Brussels aimed at ending the wrangling over who presides over the EU body that sets trade policy for the entire bloc.
“You’ll have to wait for Sunday, but I can say that things are advancing,” he told reporters when asked about Merkel’s comments on Timmermans.
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Die Welt cited sources as saying Weber won’t become president and that Merkel had accepted that decision. Weber will now most likely be compensated with EU parliament presidency. Europe’s Greens would support a solution with Timmermans in charge of the commission and Weber of the parliament, chair Reinhard Buetikofer told Funke.
Timmerman’s advancement to the top job, however, has a major obstacle in getting prominent eastern and central Europeans nations on board. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are vocally opposed to the Dutchman’s possible ascension because he has taken a hard line on breaches of rule of law.
“I am happy that it looks like it will be possible to find a solution on the basis of the Spitzenkandidaten idea,” Merkel said.“In any case, both Spitzenkandidaten will be part of the solution. That’s very important. There won’t be an inter-institutional conflict, as it looks now.”
A decision over the commission could unlock the impasse over the other key job that needs filling: president of the ECB.
There has never been a German at the helm in Frankfurt and with Weber’s chances fading at the commission it is possible Merkel might want to focus on getting behind Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, a monetary hawk disliked by some southern countries. It will all depend on how the rest of the big jobs at the commission get distributed.
In a bid to make himself more palatable, Weidmann unexpectedly shifted his policy view on Draghi’s crisis-fighting program earlier this month. Economists in a Bloomberg poll published Friday consider him the most likely to get the ECB presidency.
See our survey on the ECB presidential race
Where does this leave Vestager, who had hoped to become the first woman to head the EU executive?
During her tenure as competition commissioner, she punished Google with more than $9 billion in fines and ordered Apple to pay more than 14 billion euros ($15.9 billion) in back taxes. Vestager’s term in that role ends in 2019, though Denmark wants to renominate her as its EU commissioner for the next five years.
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