The inconclusive Council summit has sent leaders back to the drawing board. Commentators are equally puzzled. The broad directions may be set, but the specific candidates are not.
The assorted Brussels commentariat have responded with puzzlement and confusion post the Council Summit in mid July.
The Italian premier is reported, once his choice for High Rep. had not been agreed, to have told Herman van Rompuy to text him in advance next time so he could save the bother of an air fare. It seems unlikely, but not impossible, that the Italian candidate Mogherini will still receive a high position. Her stumbling bloc was the perception that she was too soft on Russia, a major concern to Central and Eastern European Member states.
To square off such opposition, Donald Tusk was warmed up as a possible President of the Council. OpenEurope reports the positives behind this calculation, principally that he has good relations with Merkel, is experienced (unlike Mogherini) and comes from Central-Eastern Europe. However, OE notes Tusk's unwillingness, because 'Aside from his lack of language skills - he has no immediate successor as Polish Prime Minister (not least because he has culled any potential challengers) and Polish domestic politics are particularly precarious in the wake of the Wprost tapes scandal.'
Meanwhile, European Voice notes the timetabling pressure such delays to appointments will cause the Commission and the Parliamentary approval process.
'The failure of the member states to nominate ...is increasing the risk that the start-date for Juncker’s presidency will be put back from 1 November. Juncker said after his appointment had been approved by MEPs on Tuesday 15 July that the allocation of portfolios would be undertaken “at the beginning of August”. This was in itself a slippage from his previous goal of late July.
Officials suggest that the Commission departments will need to know the names and distribution of portfolios by mid-August at the latest so that they can coach would-be commissioners for their confirmation hearings in front of Parliamentary committees.'
In a separate EV editorial, it argues that there were six lessons from the summit:
Federica Mogherini is a lost cause; The Party of European Socialists is cack-handed when it comes to EU appointments; The foreign policy post will go to a candidate of the centre-left, but there is no longer any assumption that the PES will provide the President of the European Council as well; The European Council does not take seriously the parliamentary hearings for nominated European commissioners; The east is not powerless; and Matteo Renzi has a lot to learn about how the European Union works.
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European Voice Article (Six Lessons.) Subscription required
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