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There was such sharp disagreement among the heads of state and government in Brussels that they could not even agree on exactly how they had failed to agree.
After a dinner meeting on Thursday that stretched into the early hours of the following morning, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Spitzenkandidaten or "lead candidates" of the three biggest pro-EU political families had been eliminated from contention.
"They have been taken out tonight, which allows us to relaunch the process," Macron said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, was less clear. She said Council President Donald Tusk had reported, after extensive consultations, that there is no majority for any of the three lead candidates: German MEP Manfred Weber of her conservative European People's Party (EPP); First Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans of the Socialists; and Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager of the liberals. But she left open the possibility that that could change.
Merkel and other officials tried to suggest that the political fortunes of the nominees could still be reversed, even though leaders of the Socialist and liberal-centrist groups in Parliament declared Thursday they would not support Weber, leaving him well short of a majority among pro-EU forces.
Selecting a new roster of EU leaders is always a difficult task, requiring intensive negotiations, and in 2014 the process lasted through the summer with a final decision not reached until late August. But unlike in 2014, when a deal between the conservative and Socialist lead candidates, Jean-Claude Juncker — who became Commission president — and Martin Schulz, presented a clear path forward, the 28 heads of state and government this time face a virtually blank slate.
Merkel noted that the main center-right and center-left parties no longer control a sufficient number of seats in the Parliament to reach a deal among themselves and must now reach wider to form a pro-EU majority coalition that will include at least the liberals and probably the Greens. [...]
Tusk ducks
Tusk, speaking at a news conference that began shortly after 2 a.m., did not directly answer a question about whether Weber's candidacy had been definitely rejected by the leaders during their deliberations.
"We need more time to discuss the whole landscape," said Tusk, who also hails from the EPP. "This is why we go back to the issue at the end of June and today is too early to prejudge names."
The leaders said they would reconvene in Brussels on the evening of Sunday, June 30 shortly after several of them are due to return from a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Informal conversations about the EU's future are expected to continue in Japan with Tusk, Juncker, Merkel and Macron all scheduled to be there, along with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.
Asked why leaders think they would have a better shot at reaching an accord in just 10 days' time, Juncker said it is unlikely the odds would improve. [...]
The leaders are under pressure to reach agreement on a package of top positions before the new European Parliament holds its first session on July 2 and elects a president.
Despite Thursday's dinner ending without agreement, Macron said that he does not think leaders had failed. "I don't have the feeling that I have gone through failure," he said.
But in a sign of how little progress they had made, and just how wide open the search for a new Commission president remains, Tusk was asked if perhaps he had put his own name forward. He said he had not. [...]