Personalpoker paralyzes EU summit | Currently Europe | '
The Heads of State and Government want to determine in Brussels the future President of the Commission, the President of the Council and the European Union External Representative. The President of the ECB should be decided later, French President Emmanuel Macron had said before the beginning of the meeting. In the end there must be a balanced geographic mix and a fair distribution between men and women.
However, the search for the new EU representatives is proving difficult: participants in the meeting in Brussels interrupted their deliberations during the night of Monday, after having spent hours talking about the personnel package. Because the 28 EU leaders could not yet agree on a candidate for the EU Commission President, EU Council President Donald Tusk is now on individual talks.
Timmermans should not be
According to EU diplomats, the compromise solution proposed by the major EU governments with the Dutch Social Democrat and former EU Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans is off the table. Resistance to the solution also supported by Chancellor Angela Merkel came mainly from eastern Europeans of the Visegrad Group, but also from the ranks of the conservative EPP. A postponement of the consultations to mid-July is therefore no longer excluded.
Already on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Osaka, Japan, the heads of government from Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands had sketched out a compromise solution with Timmermans. Merkel had also talked last week with CSU leader Markus Söder, CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, EPP's leading candidate Manfred Weber, and EPP President Joseph Daul about whether Weber could offer another job for a compromise – such as that of the President of Parliament or the Commission Vice.
The election winner the right of access
However, this met with resistance from a number of EPP politicians because the EPP had become the strongest force in the European elections. "Whoever wins the election has the first right of access," demanded EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a Christian Democrat. Already in the preliminary discussion of the EPP parties there had been criticism of the Timmermans solution.
Heads of Government from other party families promptly blamed the EPP for the difficulties at the Brussels meeting. Added to this was massive resistance from the prime ministers of the so-called Visegrad states Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. These reject Timmermans as unsuitable on the grounds that he does not understand Eastern Europe. The main reason for this is that the Commission vice is behind the infringement proceedings of the Commission for infringements of the rule of law, for example in Poland and Hungary.
Does only relocation help?
Whether it succeeds in the night to Monday in one-on-one talks to find a solution in the tricked Personalpoker is questionable. It is certain that you want to get together afterwards in a big round. Then a decision should also be made whether to continue to deliberate or whether the negotiations should be adjourned. In fact, Merkel and other governments had insisted on tying up the staff package before 3 July when the European Parliament elected a new president. Because even this office should be included in the distribution of posts.
The special summit had become necessary because there had already been no agreement at a first EU summit. One reason is that Christian Democrats and Social Democrats insisted on their own candidates, and French President Emmanuel Macron and Liberal leaders had rejected the top-scorer principle altogether. However, the two major party families of the Christian and Social Democrats insisted on this same principle.
haz / stu (rtr, afp, dpa)
ليست هناك تعليقات