European Union leaders struggled on Wednesday to agree on a package of top jobs for the bloc in hopes of signing them off at a summit later in the day, including the appointment of a new foreign policy chief. The 28 leaders were also set to step up sanctions against Russia over separatist violence in eastern Ukraine, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said Moscow had failed to fulfil commitments to restore peace in the region.
The measures outlined in a draft statement seen by Reuters aim to block European public loans for new investment projects in Russia worth up to 3 billion euros ($4 billion) and impose asset freezes and visa bans on more individuals. Former Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker has already been approved as president of the executive European Commission. Agreement on other top EU posts, including the president of the European Council of EU leaders, will shape Europe's response to economic stagnation, Ukraine and Britain's wavering membership of the bloc.
"It's all up in the air," an official involved in the negotiations said. Central and east European members were pressing for the foreign policy job to go to a candidate from the east, and Germany was reluctant to see a Frenchman get the Commission's key economic post, he said. Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, 41, is front-runner for the foreign policy post but Poland and Baltic states have misgivings about her inexperience and attitude to Russia since its annexation of Crimea in March.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite reflected those concerns, telling reporters: "I will support a person with experience in foreign affairs and a person who is neutral and at least reflects all opinions of all member states on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and I will not support a person who is pro-Kremlin." Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, 47, has broad support to take the European Council job, chairing the bloc's regular summits, but France has reservations because her country is not a member of the euro zone. Outgoing President Herman Van Rompuy, from euro member Belgium, played a central role in tackling the currency area's 2010-13 debt crisis.
Thorning-Schmidt said on arrival at the summit that she was not a candidate. Diplomats said that was mainly to protect herself back home against the risk of failure. In the EU, the front-runners often fall short, opening the way for surprise choices. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Bulgaria's Kristalina Georgieva, the EU commissioner for development, are possible alternatives if Mogherini stumbles. Some west Europeans see Oxford-educated Sikorski, a respected strategic thinker, as too belligerent toward Moscow.
Georgieva, 60, spent 17 years at the World Bank as an economist and has few political enemies. Van Rompuy, whose term expires at the end of November, put back the start of the summit to allow for more consultations to try to put together a package deal. Some EU leaders said further talks may be necessary in the coming weeks over jobs that include an influential full-time chairman of euro zone finance ministers for five years, likely to go to conservative Spanish Finance Minister Luis De Guindos.
"It's quite possible that this will be only a first discussion and that final decisions won't be taken today," Merkel said on arrival. "If we do decide, then I'm in favour of dealing with the outstanding questions very comprehensively." The jobs selection is delicate given the wide disparity of views across the 28 countries in the EU, an uneasy alliance spanning Britain, where some Eurosceptics want to quit the bloc, to Greece, which narrowly avoided leaving due to economic turmoil. The other key posts at the Commission, which proposes and enforces laws for 500 million Europeans, include the commissioners in charge of economic affairs, competition, trade, the internal market and energy policy. "We need to find the right balance between political parties, between north and south, between male and female. A lot needs to be taken into account, but the most important thing is competence," New Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said.
The centre-right Juncker, who won an investiture vote in the European Parliament on Tuesday, will attend the summit before composing his Commission team in early August from candidates put forward by national governments.
Both Mogherini and Thorning-Schmidt are women from the centre-left, which may play to their advantage. But an EU official noted that both were from western Europe and said the leaders were under strong pressure to offer one of the top jobs to an east European. Juncker is seeking to put more women in top jobs. European Parliament President Martin Schulz warned on Tuesday that lawmakers might reject the entire team if there were too few. Britain may struggle to secure an important position for its nominee, little-known lawmaker Jonathan Hill, as Prime Minister David Cameron tries to renegotiate EU membership terms before a promised 2017 referendum on whether to stay in the bloc.
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