The summit, supposedly to settle the question of the sharing of positions of power within the European Union, was stalled on the first day of this month. Meeting for the third time since the last European elections, the 28 European heads of state and government have failed to agree on appointments to the EU’s strategic posts – the most important being that of President of the EU.
While he will leave his post on October 31, Jean-Claude Junker still does not know the identity of his successor.
At the end of these unsuccessful negotiations, French President Emmanuel Macron did not hide his irritation at seeing his European colleagues supposedly faltering. The head of state has denounced the “too long meetings that lead to nothing” adding that the “club of 28 that meets without ever deciding”.
According to Macron, this failure “is related to divisions and sometimes to personal ambitions that were not appropriate to be around the table”. He did not name the individuals he was referring to. “We need to have better prepared meetings. This whole process has been badly conceived.”
The tenant of the Elysee says it has resulted in a “image of Europe which is not serious” and makes it “not credible internationally”.
The Macron administration may be at the root of the delay, however. Since the European elections of May 26, Paris and Berlin oppose, among other things, the method of appointment of the President of the European Commission.
As Pierre Lévy , editor-in-chief of the monthly Ruptures, pointed out, Berlin has been defending the notion that “the presidency of the Commission should return to the leader of the European party which came first” in the last European elections, the so-called “spitzenkandidat”.
If this method is again followed as in 2014, it will lead to the appointment of the German Manfred Weber, candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP), the majority in the Council and the European Parliament.
But Paris has been refusing this appointment. Emmanuel Macron believes that Manfred Weber, who has never held any governmental responsibility, is sorely lacking in experience. Macron backs the lead candidate for the Liberal group, Margrethe Vestager, 51, the EU’s Danish competition commissioner. Macron’s Republic on the Move party (LREM) is a part of the same group.
The last option on the table, supported by both Germany and France, is Dutch social democrat Frans Timmermans. But this Franco-German agreement has been met with hostility from Italy and the four members of the Visegrad group (Hungary and Poland – against whom Timmermans launched proceedings for alleged violation of the rule of law – as well as Slovakia and the Czech Republic).
Another point of friction between France and its neighbor across the Rhine: the choice of personality who will succeed Mario Draghi as President of the European Central Bank. On 21 June, on the sidelines of the European Council, the French President openly mocked Jens Weidmann – the Berlin candidate. When a journalist asked him if Jens Weidmann would make a good president of the ECB, Macron responded: “It is not up to me to be the arbiter of elegance”.
In the event that no consensus emerges on July 2, European leaders could meet again in a little less than two weeks, on July 15, for new negotiations. A tumultuous new chapter in the history of the European Union that bears witness to the real risk of fragmentation, looms.
