EU PRESIDENT NOMINATIONS SUMMIT ON NOVEMBER 19

By Marjorie Smith
Brussels


European Union leaders are expected to choose the first president of the 27-member bloc next week, at a summit scheduled for November 19, German Press Agency dpa learned from diplomats in Brussels on Tuesday.

            By then, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who is coordinating the negotiations, plans to have ended consultations with the EU member states - enabling the EU leaders to fill two new high-profile EU posts on November 19.  National leaders are currently debating who should get the jobs.

            According to diplomats in Brussels, the prime ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands, Herman Van Rompuy and Jan Peter Balkenende, are front-runners to claim the post of EU president. Britain's foreign minister, David Miliband, is said to be the front-runner for the job of EU high representative, even though he has regularly denied being interested in the job. Gordon Brown denied that Miliband was a candidate. Another contender for this post is former Italian prime minister Massimo D'Alema.

VAN ROMPUY IS NOT THE FAVOURITE, SAYS FRANCE'S KOUCHNER

                No favourites have yet emerged, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Tuesday. Kouchner said he doubted the 27 EU heads of state and government would agree this week, as had seemed possible, on who should become president of the EU Council and the bloc's high representative for foreign affairs. "Honestly, there are no favourites at the moment," he told France Inter radio. "France does not have any favourite. We are waiting. There will be a meeting, I think, next week. It should have been at the end of this week, but I don't believe that will happen."

            EU diplomats have said there was strong backing for Herman Van Rompuy, but Kouchner said Tony Blair and Jean-Claude Juncker remained in the running. "There is Tony Blair's name, of course, and that was the first. There is the name of the Belgian prime minister, and then there are other names. There is Jean-Claude Juncker," he said. Kouchner reiterated that France and Germany would support the same candidates and made no mention of who might become the bloc's foreign policy supremo.

            Although he declined to say who he supported for the office of president, he indicated that he wanted a heavy hitter. "The time has come for us to have someone who can make their weight felt not only in meetings, but in the preparation for these meetings, in the European debate," he said.