EU Leaders Abandon Their Top Candidates for Posts: Summit Update
Vestager Calls on EU Leaders to Opt for Change: Summit Update
(Bloomberg) -- European Union leaders bickered until the early morning hours Friday over who’s going to lead the bloc’s key institutions before giving up and calling an emergency summit for later this month to try and find a deal.
At stake is oversight of monetary policy for the euro area and regulation of the vast single market stretching from the Arctic circle to the Mediterranean.
Key Developments:
- Leaders agreed to meet June 30th to discuss who should fill the top posts in the EU and at the European Central Bank
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats stuck to their position that as the largest party in the bloc they should name the new head of the EU’s executive arm
Macron Sees Fresh Start for Selecting Top Posts (3:04 a.m.)
French President Emmanuel Macron said he doesn’t see the meeting as a failure because the deadlock resulted in moving away from the so-called Spitzenkandidat principle backed by some of the political parties, including Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
“The process was blocked because political families considered themselves bound by initial agreements,” Macron told reporters. “That’s lifted tonight, which allows the process to be restarted.”
“In the coming weeks we need to surface names of people who are qualified for these jobs,” he added.
Croat Politicians Ready to Score Some EU Baskets (3:10 a.m.)
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he’s not surprised that he and Croat President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic are being talked about as possible candidates for a top post.
“I must say, that Croatian politicians in office have a lot of international experience, it takes 25 seconds for someone to know that,” Plenkovic said early Friday morning. “None of us are rookies, some have 25 years of experience and like in sports, when you are at the peak of your career you score goals, baskets or whatever."
Merkel Needs Candidate Acceptable to Parliament (2:28 a.m.)
Merkel said the Spitzenkandidat principle backed by the party groups hasn’t been as successful as she had hoped and now leaders need to come up with someone to lead the EU’s executive arm who’s also acceptable to the European Parliament.
“We’re not quite at the point where I’d wish us to be, and now we have to take the situation as it is. It comes from the fact that you no longer have two political families that have to agree, but several, at least three,” Merkel told reporters early Friday morning. “We recommend the person, but we want under no circumstances to discover with the parliament that whom we’ve put forward isn’t accepted.”
Tough Talks Ahead as Top Candidates Abandoned (2:13 a.m.)
European leaders agreed to abandon all three of the Spitzenkandidaten -- Manfred Weber, Margrethe Vestager and Frans Timmermans -- who were identified by the various party groups ahead of the European Parliament election as their top choices to run the EU’s executive arm, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
What Merkel’s Allies Want (7 p.m.)
Even though Christian Democrat leaders are coming to terms with possibly having to ditch their formal candidate to lead the EU Commission, they are not willing to waive their party’s claim to the bloc’s most powerful job, said an EU diplomat from a country with a center-right government. This means that if they concede that Manfred Weber doesn’t get the job, they will also demand that another candidate from their own political family does, the diplomat said, asking not to be identified discussing the private deliberations.
World Bank chief Kristalina Georgieva is someone who commands respect, the person said. The diplomat downplayed Michel Barnier’s chances, citing the Brexit negotiator’s rival campaign against Weber, which has annoyed his Christian Democratic party.
France Hopes for Progress on Top Candidates (6:30 p.m.)
France wants to at least narrow the list of possible candidates, even if leader’s probably won’t complete the process, a French official said. French President Emmanuel Macron went into meetings on Thursday with leaders striking a more conciliatory pose, in contrast to the last summit when he pointedly omitted Weber from a shortlist of candidates.
The French official said there are around a dozen people in Europe who have the experience and skills for the top jobs. That includes Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite, Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva and Croatia’s Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, who are “options” that are “credible.”
Macron won’t close himself off by backing any one option, or by trying to block any name or nationality, the official added.
Earlier:
--With assistance from Richard Bravo, Viktoria Dendrinou, Jonathan Stearns, Milda Seputyte, Lyubov Pronina, Ewa Krukowska, Nikos Chrysoloras and Ian Wishart.
To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Brussels at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net;Jan Bratanic in Brussels at jbratanic@bloomberg.net;William Horobin in Brussels at whorobin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Chad Thomas, Zoe Schneeweiss
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