This archive report was first published on 1 July 2019.
Published on July 1, 2019, EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a summit to agree on top jobs, but a proposed compromise on the presidency of the European Commission faced opposition from centre-right leaders.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had developed a plan on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, which included nominating Dutch social democrat Frans Timmermans as president of the European Commission.
However, when Merkel presented this plan to fellow centre-right leaders in the European People's Party (EPP), several rebelled, and the main summit was delayed as heads of government shuttled between side meetings until dawn broke.
Irish Premier Leo Varadkar expressed pessimism, stating that "from the EPP point of view, the vast majority of EPP prime ministers don't believe that we should give up the presidency of the Commission quite so easily without a fight."
A French source told AFP that the breakdown in communication between Merkel and her fellow centre-right leaders had not been anticipated, describing the summit as "very poorly prepared."
For a nominee to go forward, they must secure the backing of 21 of the 28 EU leaders, representing 65 percent of the bloc's population.
Timmermans, the outgoing vice-president of the Commission, has made enemies in the east of the EU, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban calling him a "serious or even historical mistake."
