German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen has been nominated by EU leaders to head up the European Commission.
France’s Christine Lagarde has been proposed for the presidency of the European Central Bank; Belgium’s Charles Michel for European Council president; and Spain’s Josep Borrell for EU foreign policy chief.
Donald Tusk confirmed that the European Council has agreed on the future leadership of the EU in a tweet which read:
“The European Council has agreed on the future leadership of the EU institutions.”
The European Council has agreed on the future leadership of the EU institutions.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) July 2, 2019
There had been days of deadlock at the talks in Brussels, as heads of state met to agree a deal.
The European Parliament now will vote to ratify the new candidates.
The official start of the summit was delayed by more than four hours on Tuesday as Mr Tusk led discussions in groups aimed at finding a compromise over who should secure the posts.
The challenge is to name a group of new leaders of the EU institutions that respect the 28-nation bloc’s political affiliations, geography — a balance of countries from the north and south, east and west — population size and to have at least two women nominated.
“Everyone has to understand that they have to move a little bit,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. The leaders “have the duty to find a solution”.
But the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, backed by Italy, appear firmly entrenched in their opposition to former Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans, who is seen by many as the most qualified candidate to take over from Jean-Claude Juncker at the head of the European Commission.
Mr Timmermans is seen by these countries — many of them with anti-migrant governments — as a supporter of a contested scheme to impose refugee quotas on EU countries.
He has also led efforts, backed by the threat of legal action, to improve the rule of law in Poland and Hungary.
“We want somebody on the presidency of the commission which doesn’t have a negative view on our region. Mr Timmermans is not acceptable for us. That’s it,” Czech prime minister Andrej Babis told reporters as he arrived at EU headquarters in Brussels.
“We have a completely different view on migration. He was always behind quotas and so on, so this is a problem for us.”
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