Day 3: Who works behind the back, Plenkovic against Merkel and "the Osaka deal"

EU leaders will try to reach compromise regarding the names of the future Chairman of European Commission, which is the main point of disagreement.
The President of European Council, EU Foreign Affairs Minister, and President of European Central Bank should also be elected at this point.
The meeting EU 28 is scheduled for 11.00 am in the headquarters of European Council in Brussels. It is announced that, if needs be, the discussion will be extended during working lunch.
Leaders of the Visegrad Four (Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland) met prior to this meeting, openly opposing the election of Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans for the President of European Commission.
After a two-day summit, and more than 20 hours of negotiations, EU leaders consider that the failure to reach agreement for the top EU positions brings EU credibility into question.

Behind the scenes and "what Osaka deal means" Foto: Tanjug/Francois Lenoir, Pool Photo via AP

On the other hand, Croatian portal euractiv.jutarnji.hr states that it has reliable information that EPP is ready to disarrange the overall composition of the leading candidates only to get the position of the Chairman of European Commission. In such constellation, Michel Barnier is strong potential candidate for the position, reports this web portal.
EPP representatives were not informed that Weber and Merkel had already agreed that Weber should abandon the nomination for the Chairman of EC and that he should take over European Parliament. Croatian Prime Minister Plenkovic and Lithuanian PM left the meeting enraged, accusing EPP members that they make deals behind the back of some of the member states. Bulgarian PM Bojko Borisov took their side, so they openly posed the...

Continue reading on: