EU leaders fail to agree top posts
Italy’s hopes for Mogherini dashed as Herman Van Rompuy calls an extra summit for 30 August to name next foreign-policy chief and president of the European Council.
A special summit of the European Union’s national leaders has failed in its set task of appointing the EU’s next foreign-policy chief, with several leaders holding firm in their opposition to Federica Mogherini, Italy’s foreign minister.
Although a campaign has grown in recent days against Mogherini for being soft on Russia, Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, refused to back down on Mogherini’s appointment.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, announced at the end of the summit that he would re-call the leaders for an extra meeting on 30 August.
He said afterwards that he had told the leaders, on the basis of his consultations, that a decision was not ripe.
“We are not yet at the point where we can get a consensual solution on a full package of appointments, so we will continue consultations,” he said.
The summit had been, he said, “shorter than some had hoped” which was “a bit unfortunate, but not dramatic”. He expressed confidence that a decision would be taken on 30 August.
Renzi said after the summit, with a note of irony: “I’ve been given a course in the need for compromise.”
He said Italy’s candidate had not been vetoed.
Since the foreign-policy chief is also a vice-president of the European Commission, the failure of today’s summit throws into disarray the plans of Jean-Claude Juncker, the incoming Commission president, to finalise the composition of the next college of commissioners by mid-August.
Countries that still harbour hopes of winning the high representative post will be reluctant to put forward candidates for other Commission posts while that job is still in play. Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, said: “Juncker would want to have the names as soon as possible. But not having appointed a high representative makes this difficult. We might come up with a candidate after 30 August. I want to wait with announcements as long as possible to ensure a good post.” Frans Timmermans, the Dutch foreign minister, from the centre-left, is a possible contender for the high representative post. Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, from the centre-right, is another contender. And Kristalina Georgieva, Bulgaria’s European commissioner, is also talked about for the post, but would probably not be backed by the Bulgarian government for any other job.
Van Rompuy said that decisions at the end of August would still make it possible for the European Parliament to hold confirmation hearings for the nominated commissioners in September, but it is far from clear whether this is indeed the case.
The initial plan was for Jean-Claude Juncker, the president-elect, and his commissioners to take office on 1 November, following hearings in Parliament in September and a vote in plenary in October.
Without a new Commission in place, the current Commission would have to continue in caretaker capacity beyond 31 October.
Mogherini had been put forward by Matteo Renzi, Italy’s prime minister, and was the candidate of the European centre-left, which, after the appointment of Juncker, who is from the centre-right, to the Commission presidency, was looking to take both the post of foreign-policy chief and the presidency of the European Council – Van Rompuy’s successor.
But the summit discussions have uncovered disagreements over how the political groups should divide the spoils, with doubts expressed about the centre-left taking both jobs. In addition, Spain is trying to secure the presidency of the Eurogroup for Luis de Guindos of the centre-right. Pierre Moscovici, from the French centre-left, is looking for a heavyweight economic portfolio in the next Commission.
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said after the summit that there was “a certain logic” to the centre-left claim on the high representative but that no such logic existed for the Council president.
“There is a certain logic that when the Commission president comes from the [centre-right] EPP, the high representative is a socialist. When it comes to president of the Council, we should think about who keeps us together best, not from which party group he comes,” she said. She added: “And now there is no doubt about this any longer”, which may have been a dig at Renzi’s summit tactics.
François Hollande, France’s centre-left president, said that the socialists should get the high representative while the Council president should be someone who commanded consensus.
Hollande said about the foreign-policy chief: “It will necessarily be a socialist and a woman who is high representative. Mogherini has my support. But it is about looking for consensus.”
When asked about Mogherini and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the frontrunner for president of the European Council, who is Denmark’s centre-left prime minister, Merkel said that the Council had not even discussed them.
Dalia Grybauskaitė, Lithuania’s president, said as she left the Council: “It was very clear that a decision was not possible tonight. There was no consensus. We were not discussing names at all, the main discussions have been about criteria: gender balance, political group and geographical elements.”
Resistance to Mogherini’s nomination, mainly from countries in central and eastern Europe that would like the EU to take a tough line with Russia, was focused on her person, not her party-political background.
Mogherini’s first foreign visit after Italy assumed the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers on 1 July was to Moscow, where she met President Vladimir Putin. This strengthened the resolve of those member states that held reservations about her.
The summit had begun with a two-hour delay to give Van Rompuy more time for informal consultations, after several weeks of intense bilateral contacts had failed to produce a deal on the appointment.
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