There is still no consensus on who should become the European Union's first full-time president and its new foreign policy supremo, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said Wednesday.
Eight days before the bloc's leaders were to meet at a special summit in Brussels to pick the candidates for the two posts, Reinfeldt told reporters: "I have more names than jobs to offer." Earlier Wednesday, Reinfeldt's office announced that a special meeting of EU heads of state and government would be held in Brussels on November 19. Reinfeldt said the "early dinner" summit would be tasked with selecting the most suitable candidates for the two posts being created by the Lisbon Treaty, which is due to come into force on December 1.
As the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, it is his task to draw up a final shortlist of candidates to present to national leaders. However, the Swedish premier conceded that he was having a tough time getting any agreement. "It will take time to get everything in place," Reinfeldt said, noting that he had spent the better part of two days to hold a first round of consultations with fellow leaders.
Aside from the fact that different member states were proposing different names, Reinfeldt said he was finding it particularly difficult to find a balance between the political left and right and the often conflicting interests of small- and medium-sized countries, northerners and southerners, those in the East and those in the West. Calls for more women to be appointed to the bloc's top posts, as well as the fact that some countries were proposing more than one name, compounded to his problems, a frustrated Reinfeldt said.
20 CANDIDATES ALREADY
According to EU diplomats, national governments have so far formally proposed "around 10 names" for the job of president, and a similar number for the post of "EU High Representative," the foreign- policy head. Reinfeldt confirmed that some of the potential candidates he was discussing with leaders had already been circulating in the international media. And he further confirmed that some of them were prime ministers in office. Asked about a Polish proposal that would see potential candidates putting their name forward, Reinfeldt said no top politician would risk their current job without receiving guarantees that they would eventually be appointed to their new European post.
"The problem with this proposal is that it takes for granted that you can actually get three or more candidates to accept to be candidates without knowing if they will get the job while in fact maybe being prime minister of a country" Reinfeldt said. "Anyone who is in politics knows this is unrealistic," he said.
MAJORITY VOTE POSSIBLE
Under treaty rules, the president and foreign representative are appointed by qualified majority vote. And Reinfeldt conceded that no candidate was likely to obtain the unanimous backing of all 27 leaders. However, Reinfeldt said he would still work to muster "the broadest support" possible for the two posts. The full list of current nominees is a closely-guarded secret. However, diplomats in Brussels say Van Rompuy and Balkenende are both front-runners for the job of president.
Italy's former premier Massimo D'Alema is rumoured to be a key candidate for the high representative's post after Britain's David Miliband repeatedly said that he was not a candidate. However, D'Alema is viewed with some concern in the EU's new member states which once were part of the Warsaw Pact because of his lifelong association with Italy's Communist party.
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