Macron and Merkel at Odds Over EU Jobs, Decision Due End of June
Merkel was not impressed with Macron’s attempt to crush Weber’s candidacy so soon and wants to keep the process open for now.
(Bloomberg) -- For an eagerly-anticipated decision on who will lead the European Union’s institutions, investors will need to tune in at the end of June for clarity.
EU leaders gathered after last week’s continent-wide ballot and differences were immediately apparent between key players German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. Together they have a lot riding on who will run the bloc’s executive arm and the European Central Bank.
Going into the meeting in Brussels, lots of names were bandied about for the political position, yet over the market-sensitive role of ECB president there was silence. The summit wrapped up early, and leader after leader left a dinner of pork with asparagus adamant that no names were discussed and that they had simply laid out a process to whittle down candidates.
EU Council President Donald Tusk, who chaired the meeting, promised to keep politics out of the selection of the next ECB chief, as parties and leaders start exchanging barbs about which faction has a claim to the commission post.
“I hope we can provide clarity on all these posts in June,’’ Tusk said after the summit, adding he would strive to nominate at least two women for the top four jobs at hand. “But this depends not only on my goodwill but also on goodwill of everyone involved.’’
The contest for president of the commission opened up rifts in the bloc, with front-runner Manfred Weber, the center-right’s official candidate, failing to gain traction with the 28 leaders. That opened the door to outside contenders such as Michel Barnier, the Brexit chief negotiator who is being put forward by France as a compromise solution.
Merkel was not impressed with Macron’s attempt to crush Weber’s candidacy so soon and wants to keep the process open for now, according to a German official. Her irritation came out at a news conference where she shot a message to Macron.
“I am warning against telling the EU Parliament that somebody who has only made experiences in parliament is not experienced,” Merkel told reporters. “And that somebody who has made experiences in the Commission, is experienced. We shouldn’t deal with each other in this currency."
A formal decision on the high-level vacancies is due to be taken at a June 20-21 summit, where leaders can decide on their own about who will fill the top jobs by a super-majority.
Eyes on ECB
While the political posts were front and center, it’s the ECB that investors are paying the closest attention to. The institution is trying to gauge when it might navigate its way out of negative interest rates, or whether it’ll be forced to add fresh stimulus to counter renewed economic weakness.
Merkel said after the dinner that the choice of ECB president is “important.” It’s possible that Weber could be a pawn to be sacrificed in the long game if for example Germany has its heart set on getting the ECB job for the first time.
In fact, the race to succeed Draghi in November remains wide open, with at least five candidates in the running, and they’ve taken very different stances on monetary policy. Contenders such as Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau and Finland’s current and former governors, Olli Rehn and Erkki Liikanen, have tended to back the institution’s stimulus measures.
Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, on the other hand, has been a frequent critic of ultra-loose policy. If he is chosen as president, some economists foresee a rising euro as he pushes for faster normalization.
Haggling Begun
What’s clear is that the horse-trading has just begun and that even at this early stage Weber’s wings were clipped. A French-led group of leaders at the summit described the qualities they are looking for in the next EU Commission president, and it was clear the description didn’t fit him.
Diplomats representing different national governments offered contrasting accounts on whether France’s insistence on eliminating Weber or Germany’s backing of its EU lawmaker are a distraction to hide their intentions of claiming the ECB or another role as consolation prizes.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was present and kept a low profile. One EU official commented on how the June summit will be her last and that given the risk of ending up with someone unpredictable in her place -- for example, Boris Johnson -- it would be good to have an agreement in place by then.
--With assistance from Paul Gordon, Marine Strauss, Ian Wishart, Jonathan Stearns, Alexander Weber, Lyubov Pronina, Milda Seputyte and Viktoria Dendrinou.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net;Arne Delfs in Berlin at adelfs@bloomberg.net;Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Flavia Krause-Jackson
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