The EU heads of state and government are deliberating this evening at a special summit on the outcome of the European elections. The meeting in Brussels focuses on the question of who should succeed Mr Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. By the end of June a staff package should be laced.
The political groups in the European Parliament demand that, as in 2014, once again only one of the party’s top candidates be considered for the post in the European elections. But several heads of state and government are opposed to such an automatism. Even before the summit, the heads of the EU parliamentary groups will discuss the next steps in the morning.
Several candidates
The successor to Juncker is claimed by the leading candidate of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber. The EPP received the most votes in the election. His social-democrat opponent Frans Timmermans and the liberal Margrethe Vestager also hope.
Weber’s plan for the evening with the group leaders of the Greens, Liberals and Social Democrats has not come about. There were scheduling problems and initially only „technical discussions“, it was said in parliamentary circles in Brussels. A short meeting is now targeted for Tuesday morning.
