EU leaders launch hunt to fill Brussels’ top job
Europe is best served by a president with a mandate from parliament, observers say
BRUSSELS— European leaders descend on Brussels on Tuesday to launch the hunt for a new generation of top European Union (EU) officials in the wake of elections that shook up traditional alliances.
The key job to be filled is that of president of the European Commission, the union’s powerful chief executive, a fiveyear post currently held by Jean-Claude Juncker.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose coalition suffered in Sunday’s EU-wide elections, said she wanted to see a quick agreement on who should run the commission, which proposes and enforces the bloc’s laws.
Under EU treaty law, the European Council of 28 national leaders nominates a commission president, then the new 751-member parliament ratifies their choice.
‘Game of Thrones’
The procedure, while seemingly straightforward, masks a complex power struggle between rival states and ideological blocs and between the leaders and parliament itself.
Juncker’s deputy and the center-left challenger for the top job, former Dutch minister Frans Timmermans, compares the ruthless intrigue to the American television series “Game of Thrones.”
And the game kicks off on Tuesday, when European Council president Donald Tusk hosts the EU leaders for a summit dinner in Brussels to lay out the ground rules.
Many in Brussels argue that the European project is best served by a “political commission” headed by a president with a mandate from the transnational parliament.
But most of the leaders think the union’s legitimacy derives from its member states and that the Council should be able to pick one of their own, someone with leadership experience.
The results of the EU elections did not strengthen parliament’s hand except perhaps for the boost of the larger than expected voter turnout.
While a threatened surge of euroskeptic and far-right populist parties was contained, the pro-Europe center was fragmented, with liberals and Greens gaining ground.—