European heads of government on Tuesday (28 May) asked EU Council president Donald Tusk to consult with the European Parliament and national leaders to come up with names for the key EU institutions – after Sunday’s election results left the EU without a clear majority for any political force or figure.
Leaders gathered in Brussels for the informal meeting to discuss the elections results, and talk about who to nominate to the top EU institutions, and crucially, the EU’s executive, the European Commission.
They agreed to mandate Tusk with coming up with possible candidates for the presidencies of the EU Commission, the European Council, the European Central banks and the EU’s foreign affairs representative.
German chancellor Angela Merkel said after the meeting that Tusk would have a coordinating role, with two national leaders each from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the Social Democrats and the liberals acting as negotiators.
She added that the EPP put forward Croatian premier Andrej Plenkovic, and the Latvian PM Krisajanis Karins, the socialists will be represented Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez, and Portugal premier Antonio Costa, while the liberal leaders will be represented by the Belgian and Dutch premiers, Charles Michel and Mark Rutte.
Leaders will discuss the possible names at their summit at the end of June.
Before the meeting the European parliament reiterated that leaders should pick a lead candidate from one of the European parties that can master a majority, while heads of government arrived in Brussels divided over whether they should go along with the parliament’s candidate.
