EU leaders fail to elect new head of European Commission

The Chairman of the European Council Donald Tusk on the night of Monday, July 1, was forced to interrupt consultations on the approval of the candidacy of the new head of the European Commission in connection with the inability to reach agreement on any of the proposed candidates, Reports informs citing Deutsche Welle.

During the night he held individual consultations with each of the 28 heads of state and government present at the extraordinary EU summit in Brussels, after which the agreement continued in an expanded format.

As Reuters informs, the reason for the difficulties was the resistance of the Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic), who rejected the candidacy of the Dutch Social Democrat Frans Timmermans. The candidacy of Timmermans as a compromise figure was eventually approved by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.

According to the sources of Reuters, seeing that Timmermans is not gaining adequate support, they offered three more names, including the President of the World Bank (WB) Kristalin Georgieva, none of which, however, did not cause mass support. Earlier among the candidates dropped out favorite — German politician Manfred Weber, whose candidacy was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

At this summit, the heads of state and government of the EU countries will not only determine the successor of the current head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker but also decide who will become the new President of the European Council and the EU high representative for foreign policy and security.