BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders started a new marathon session of talks Sunday, desperately seeking a breakthrough in a diplomatic fight over who should be picked for a half dozen of jobs at top EU institutions.
EU leaders failed in a first attempt last week to fill the roster of key appointments. The bloc is looking to replace EU Council President Donald Tusk, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the heads of the parliament, foreign affairs service and the European Central Bank by the end of fall.
Those officials will be instrumental in setting EU policy for the next five years and beyond.
Tusk met early Sunday with top parliament officials and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, many hours before an official summit was to kick off.
There was hope at the June 20-21 summit that the extra week could bring views closer together over who will replace Juncker as commission president. German Chancellor Angela Merkel backs German conservative Manfred Weber, whose center-right European People’s Party is the largest political group in the European Parliament but lost seats in the EU vote in May.
But French President Emmanuel Macron had strongly indicated that Weber lacked the necessary international credentials for such a high-profile role. He could still be considered for the head of the European Parliament.
“We are on a path that may make it possible to reach a result,” Merkel said at the G20 summit in Japan before setting off for the EU summit.
She said there was still a good possibility for Weber and the Socialist top candidate Frans Timmermans of the Netherlands to be among the winners on Sunday.
The EPP Christian Democrat and S&D Socialists are the two biggest political groups in the EU.
EU leaders want to fill the positions soon because the European Parliament is set to pick a new president next Wednesday. Tusk has warned that he will keep the leaders overnight and through early Monday if necessary.
Under EU rules, member countries choose who will run the Commission, replacing Juncker. The European Parliament must endorse that choice. But the assembly has insisted that only the party leader candidates who ran in last month’s elections should be eligible for the post.
The EU is responsible for coordinating common policies on sectors ranging from the single market to agriculture, from competition issues to immigration.
The job responsibilities are huge: Tusk and Juncker negotiate with the likes of U.S. President Donald Trump or Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while the head of the ECB can set monetary policy for the 19 nations who use the shared euro currency.
The leaders of EU institutions are supposed to impartially represent the interests of all member nations on the global stage and at home. But patriotism set in as officials from individual EU countries pushed candidates from their homelands to rule the roost of the bloc’s population of 500 million and the world’s biggest economic alliance.
The outgoing group of EU officials was lopsidedly Italian, with Antonio Tajani holding the parliament top post, Mario Draghi head of the ECB and Federica Mogherini the EU foreign policy chief.
Top candidates include current prime ministers Stefan Lofven of Sweden and Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia. Others mentioned for top EU jobs include Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier of France, Greens leader Ska Keller of Germany, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief since 2014.
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Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin
