Brussels, 17/07/20124 (Agence Europe) - In the night of Wednesday into Thursday, the European Council failed to come to an agreement on who was to take over from High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
A further summit meeting was convened for Saturday 30 August. Van Rompuy took the view that “it is … not dramatic at all”, remaining optimistic that agreement will be reached on that occasion. He said that the discussions were not yet at a point “where we can get a consensual solution on a full package of appointments”. He said that he had never promised any decisions at this summit, simply discussion on the consultations with the member states over the last few days. For some in the corridors of the Council, however, the discussions had not been properly prepared by the former Belgian prime minister.
The landscape does not seem much clearer after the summit. Italy fought hard to have its foreign minister, Federica Mogherini, succeed Ashton. But to no avail. The Baltic States and Poland presented very stiff opposition. For Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, however, the fight is not yet over. “The post of high representative will go to a Socialist. The only candidate in the race is Italian”, he said. Italy has the backing of France, François Hollande confirmed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the post of high representative should automatically go to a Socialist following the appointment of Christian Democrat Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president.
Things seem even more complex with regard to who will head the European Council, a post coveted by several of the political families. The bookies' favourite, Danish Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt, ruled herself out of the race. She stated that she was the prime minister of Denmark and happy to be, making clear that that was where she wanted to remain.
The procrastination of the Twenty Eight will, no matter what, have any negative effect on Juncker's constitution of the College of Commissioners, Van Rompuy stated. In his view, it should not overly delay the process. The heads of state and/or government had been asked to submit their nominations as quickly as possible, he said. He hoped that they would do so before the end of the month so that Juncker could give consideration to how he was going to allocate the portfolios. The hearings of the commissioners-designate would then take place at the end of September. Hollande promised a nomination before the end of July; it will be probably a man, most likely Pierre Moscovici. Juncker is ready to draw up his list of commissioners without the member states if they drag their feet on proposing candidates, those close to the Luxembourger warned. (SP with MNB/LC/MD/EL/CG/EH/IL)