David Cameron pushes for EU leaders to vote on Jean-Claude Juncker
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron plans to force an unprecedented vote among EU leaders over the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as the next European commission president if it is decided that he commands sufficient support at a summit next week. Amid increasing momentum building up behind Juncker, Downing Street will make it clear that EU leaders should be forced to explain their support for the former Luxembourg prime minister at the summit. The prime minister will hold talks in Downing Street on Monday with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, who has indicated in private that he is likely to be able to muster a "qualified majority" of votes supporting Juncker. Cameron will intensify the pressure on Van Rompuy by calling for the appointment of the next commission president to be discussed at a dinner to be attended by all 28 EU leaders in the sensitive setting of Ypres on Thursday night. Van Rompuy wants the event, which is being held to mark the centenary of the first world war, to focus on a general discussion about the challenges facing the EU to avoid a row during such a symbolic event. But Cameron will tell him that it would be absurd to talk about future challenges without mentioning Juncker, and to wait until Friday afternoon – by which time the EU's leaders will have repaired to Brussels – to discuss appointments. Downing Street said that the prime minister, who objects to how the European parliament is seeking to force the hands of the EU's leaders, has won the support of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán in challenging the process. This is not enough to block Juncker but will help Cameron if he attempts to force Van Rompuy into holding a vote. British officials would like a vote to be held if Van Rompuy believes there is sufficient support for Juncker – the first to have been held over the appointment of a commission president – to force the likes of Angela Merkel to state their support. The German chancellor has private doubts about the former Luxembourg prime minister and the "Spitzenkandidaten" system under which the principal pan-EU groups in the European parliament have nominated candidates for president of the commission. Juncker is the candidate of the centre right EPP group, the largest in the parliament. Britain believes that Merkel would be placed in a highly awkward position if she had to speak in support of Juncker. But Cameron faces defeat after Merkel and her centre-left coalition partner cut a deal over Juncker's appointment. Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice-chancellor and leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), has joined her in backing Juncker while dropping demands that Martin Schulz, the outgoing German president of the European parliament, be made the German commissioner in Juncker's team. The deal in Berlin came as the EU's centre-left government leaders prepared to meet in Paris on Saturday to coordinate positions ahead of what promises to be a turbulent EU summit next week focused on Juncker. Following last month's European elections, leaders are to meet for a summit on Thursday and Friday to debate who should be the next commission chief. Cameron has waged a loud and aggressive campaign in what looks like a doomed attempt to sway minds against Juncker. Officials in Brussels say that campaign has been driven by Conservative party politics, with fateful implications for Britain's future in Europe. The Berlin deal suggests domestic party politics in Germany have played an even bigger role in resolving the controversy over Juncker and the EU's future leadership team. Schulz led the European social democrats in the recent election as contender for the commission job while Juncker, with Merkel's backing, led the campaign for the Christian democrats who won, making the Luxembourger the frontrunner. Cameron had no say in either candidacy since the Tories are aligned with neither grouping after the prime minister parted company with Europe's Christian democrats in 2009. "The SPD will accept a commissioner from [Merkel's] CDU provided Schulz is elected president of the European parliament," Gabriel told Der Spiegel magazine. That represented a climbdown. The SPD had previously threatened to block Juncker in the necessary vote in the European parliament unless Schulz was named by Merkel as the new German commissioner. Schulz told the Guardian last week that Juncker had offered him the post of vice-president of the commission and also warned that it would be "easier" for the SPD to support Juncker in a vote if he was assured of the job. It is not clear how the deal will go down in the rest of Europe and whether Merkel, the EU's most powerful leader, will get her way. But it suggests she will push to have Juncker nominated. If she does, Cameron will insist on a vote at the summit, will vote against, will force other leaders to show their true colours on Juncker, and will probably lose in the qualified majority vote. Until now, these decisions have always only been taken by consensus by national EU leaders. Juncker is the candidate for the centre-right. Paradoxically, he seems to enjoy stronger support in the opposition camp than in his own. Several EU centre-right leaders – in Britain, Sweden, Hungary, the Netherlands, and partly in Germany – have reservations about him. Saturday's centre-left summit is likely to agree to support Juncker. The French president, François Hollande, and the new star of the European centre-left, Matteo Renzi, the prime minister of Italy, will be joined by Gabriel and Schulz as well as the government chiefs of Austria and Belgium. They are certain to qualify their support for Juncker by demanding concessions on European austerity policies, infrastructure investment, and gaining more time to reduce public spending burdens. While Merkel will resist attempts to relax fiscal rigour across the EU, the chair of next week's summit, Herman Van Rompuy, is expected to come up with a formula enabling everyone – except Cameron – to save face and claim victory. |