BRUSSELS, July 2 — EU leaders clashed today as they arrived for a third straight day of talks aimed at filling the bloc’s top jobs, with deep divisions threatening hopes of a swift decision.
An 18-hour summit session broke up in acrimony yesterday with no agreement on a French-German compromise on who will become the new chief of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.
However, a European source told AFP that France and Germany were discussing German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, a conservative, as a new compromise candidate.
Their previous candidate, Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans, faced continuing opposition today.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis slammed Timmermans as “absolutely unacceptable” to a group of Eastern European countries, setting the stage for more tough wrangling behind closed doors.
Timmermans has enraged the so-called “Visegrad 4” group of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic with his softer approach to migration as commission vice-president over the last five years.
“He has always pushed a migration policy which is unacceptable for us, so this man is absolutely unacceptable and I can’t see why the prime ministers of France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany weren’t able to understand,” Babis said as he arrived for talks.
But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stood firm behind fellow Social Democrat Timmermans suggesting French President Emmanuel Macron’s hopes of agreement in “a few hours” today could be thwarted.
In a sign of the tensions gripping the summit, the resumption of the formal talks today was delayed from 11am (0900 GMT) until 1pm, and then again until 2 pm to allow leaders to meet one-on-one or in small groups.
“I think they need to consult more to have a better chance of reaching a decision,” an EU source told reporters. “It’s often easier in small groups.”
‘New creativity’
An EU diplomat said the Timmermans proposal had foundered yesterday in the face of opposition from the Visegrad 4 plus Italy, where the populist government shares some of the Eastern Europeans’ anger at Brussels over migration.
Sanchez, who held pre-summit talks with Macron and the Portuguese PM today, took aim at those rejecting Timmermans who has defended EU values on migration and rule of law.
“You cannot reject a person because he has defended the treaties and the principles and the European values we stand for,” Sanchez said.
For a candidate to get the nod, they need the backing of 21 of the 28 EU leaders, representing 65 per cent of the bloc’s population.
The 24-hour break in negotiations was filled with a blizzard of phone calls and text messages, according to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, as leaders sought to overcome divisions while protecting their own interests.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said leaders would approach day three with “new creativity”, but warned that “everyone needs to understand that they need to move a little — and I mean everybody”.
The compromise Merkel and Macron forged on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan on Saturday called for Timmermans to head the commission, rather than his conservative rival German Manfred Weber.
Weber would instead be put forward for election as speaker of the European Parliament, where he leads the largest political bloc. A liberal candidate would succeed Donald Tusk as president of the European Council of national leaders.
But when Merkel put this to fellow centre-right leaders in the European People’s Party (EPP), several rebelled and the summit was thrown into crisis as heads of government shuttled between side meetings on Sunday evening and yesterday.
Changing dynamics
The EPP is still the biggest bloc in the European Parliament, but it is no longer the dominant force it was before elections in May.
Weber, a career MEP, is also personally unacceptable to some because of his lack of experience at the top level of government.
The liberals, which include Macron supporters, are increasingly assertive over the choice of top jobs after they and the Greens made significant gains in the polls.
Even though the Social Democrat bloc also lost ground, Timmermans emerged as a compromise candidate to head the powerful executive.
But support appeared today to be ebbing away from him, European sources confirmed.
Macron proposed to Merkel yesterday having von der Leyen as head of the commission, and she is among the options being considered, another European source told AFP.
The German daily Die Welt said European Council President Donald Tusk, who convened the summit, also proposed von der Leyen, an EPP member. — AFP
