Merkel Faces Resistance to Her EU Jobs Plan From Allies and Foes

(Bloomberg) -- Angela Merkel's latest proposal for divvying up the European Union's top jobs ran into strong opposition as the bloc's leaders sat down for another summit on Sunday evening.

Ireland's premier Leo Varadkar went straight to the point, saying the Christian Democratic bloc that includes Merkel's CDU hasn't agreed to her proposal to appoint Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans to the helm of the European Commission.

“As the EPP we haven't agreed to the package that was negotiated in Osaka," Varadkar said.

Outgoing EU Parliament President Antonio Tajani and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, weighed in with similar doubts from the center-right EPP, without which it is virtually impossible to forge the required majority to approve any nomination by the EU leaders.

Merkel herself appeared to be downbeat when she stopped to talk to reporters on the red carpet that leads into the council's headquarters in downtown Brussels.

“As things are shaping up, this won't be a very simple negotiation, to put it mildly," she said. "We'll try to be constructive, but I'll say once again that it's very important for me to avoid an inter-institutional conflict, between the council and the parliament, so this will take a while.”

Europe's Troubles

Those comments came after she failed to convince the leadership of her center-right group to back Timmermans at a pre-summit gathering.

While resistance from other leaders to her proposals isn't uncommon, the internal pushback from her own allies on Sunday was unprecedented, according to one official. Just over a week ago, EU leaders had rejected the appointment of her initial candidate for commission chief, the German Manfred Weber.

Part of the chorus of opposition to Merkel's proposal came from eastern Europe, including Hungary and Poland, who have long opposed Timmermans, currently the vice-president of the EU's executive arm, for criticizing their democratic standards.

“Nobody has the right to negotiate on behalf of” the European People's Party, said Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. “Merkel is chairman of the CDU, not the EPP.”

Failure to reach an agreement would not only reinforce a wide-spread image of lethargy and lack of transparency in the EU's decision-making process. The Council may also find it has less room to maneuver as the EU parliament will choose its next leader in coming days, a post had been part of the complex equation of backroom dealing.

Yet not all was downbeat on Sunday evening. Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne was convinced a deal could still be hammered out.

"I believe today we're going to resolve three parts of the package: commission president, council president and high representatives," he told reporters. "I believe we will find a resolution.”

--With assistance from Patrick Donahue, Marine Strauss, Slav Okov, Caroline Alexander, Ian Wishart, Viktoria Dendrinou, Milda Seputyte, Helene Fouquet, Lyubov Pronina, Alexander Weber, Jasmina Kuzmanovic, Zoltan Simon, Zoe Schneeweiss, Jonathan Stearns, Jan Bratanic and Stephanie Bodoni.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt, Ben Sills

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