Concerned about the European Union
A special summit will be held on that date in Brussels, to appoint the first president of the European Union and its chief diplomat. Several names are still in contention: the Belgian Van Rompuy, or the Luxembourg Juncker or Dutch Balkenende.
The Swedish Presidency of the EQOA tunar convened a special summit November 19 in Brussels to select new positions emblematic of President and chief diplomat of the EU, announced on Wednesday a spokesman.
“A summit will be held November 19 in Brussels” about the new positions created by the Treaty of Lisbon “, told AFP Roberta Alenius, spokeswoman of Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
“My prime minister will start a second round of consultation and hopes to be able to present candidates next Thursday,” she added.
The Swedish Presidency has completed a first round of consultations with 26 other Heads of State and Government of the EU, but there is still no consensus on one candidate for each position, several names have been proposed, explained spokeswoman.
No consensus
The choice of positions of chairman and chief diplomat of the EU looks more complicated to complete than expected, no name yet by consensus while London continues to doggedly support his former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“My discussions show that it is important to have good balance in the choice of positions,” Fredrik Reinfeldt said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published Wednesday.
“The left-right balance is very important to many, but also between large and small countries, between North and South, men and women,” he said. Several European countries, including France, hoped to complete negotiations this week.
The favorite for the post of European Council President is the head of the Belgian government, the Christian Democrat Herman Van Rompuy, supported by Paris and Berlin, diplomats said. Other names mentioned for the Presidency of the EU are the Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende, the Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker and the Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
For the post of High Representative, the former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema left is cited as a possible alternative.