BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on the European Union summit (all times local):
10:25 a.m.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis says getting Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans to lead the EU’s executive Commission will be not be acceptable to several eastern member states and Italy.
Arriving for the third of an EU summit, Babis said “we want a Commission chief with whom we can discuss normally.”
Timmermans, he said has had “a negative view of region” during his time as an EU Commission vice president.
East European countries have taken much of the blame for the failure of EU leaders to agree on who should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission president for the coming five years.
Babis said “our problem is only one name, and our colleagues didn’t understand this for 24 hours,” in a pointed reference to the failed all-night negotiating session that ended Monday.
EU leaders are gathering again to try to forge a consensus on who should lead the Commission as well as other top jobs within the EU.
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10 a.m.
European Union leaders are gathering again to try to overcome an embarrassing deadlock over a series of job nominations to key posts at the bloc for at least the next five years.
In one of the longest EU summits in recent years, the leaders are looking Tuesday to name a new president of the EU’s powerful executive arm, the European Commission, a president of the European Council and a foreign policy chief.
The European Parliament is set to vote Wednesday on its new president, while the new chairman of the European Central Bank could be named later.
The leaders are struggling to show the EU is still relevant and coherent after the bloc’s two traditional center-right and left powers lost votes in May’s European elections.
