ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 – Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on early Friday morning that a four-hour-long discussion on the hopefuls for the European Commission’s president revolved around the three known candidates and that no new candidates had been mentioned.
Leaders of the EU member-states ended the discussion on the distribution of EU top jobs inconclusively and therefore an extraordinary summit meeting is scheduled for 30 June.
“During the four-hour-long dinner the necessary majority was not secured for the support for any of the three candidates, nominated by the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and the Liberals” Plenković said after the dinner.
The three contenders for the next EC president are Manfred Weber of the EPP, Frans Timmermans of Party of European Socialists (PES) and Margrethe Vestager of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ELDE).
Plenković answered in the negative when asked if any other names were mentioned.
The European Council president, Donald Tusk, has been now tasked to continue consultations with the heads of state or government and with the political groupings in the EP in the run-up to the extraordinary summit.
The summit in Brussels endorsed a strategic agenda for the 2019-2024 period, which is blueprint for the future activities of the Commission.
Plenković expressed satisfaction that at his proposal, the agenda includes also recommendations for tackling the demographic challenges.
“What is particularly important, and I raised this issue at the Sibiu summit on 8 May is the matter of demographic revitalisation. A half of of the 28 EU member-states have a negative birth rate. We have managed to include through our amendment the topic of demographic challenges to that document,” Plenković said.
He explained that this could pave the way for providing the European-level assistance to efforts to address this issue.
The summit briefly discussed the enlargement of the Union. Plenković expressed regret at a failure at a recent ministerial meeting to give North Macedonia and Albania a date for opening the accession negotiations.
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