Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans is on course to be named the EU's next chi...
BRUSSELS - Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans is on course to be named the EU’s next chief executive, diplomats and officials said on Sunday, hours before European Union leaders meet to decide who wins the bloc’s top posts.
If confirmed, the choice would mark a victory for centrists and liberals, who challenged what they saw as increasingly German domination in Brussels, and would end 15 years of center-right control of the European Commission. Antti Rinne, Finland’s first left-leaning prime minister in 20 years, told Reuters he backed Timmermans as Commission chief and that this decision would now allow other jobs to be filled.
Timmermans, the current Commission vice-president and a former Dutch foreign minister, is expected to be confirmed in his post at a summit dinner of 28 leaders in Brussels starting at 6 p.m. .COMPROMISE EMERGING With the bloc’s main founding powers, France and Germany, long at odds over not just the candidates but also the rules of the job search itself, a Tuesday deadline to choose the head of the European Parliament has given urgency to a task that could otherwise drag on for months, diplomats say.
But French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the ‘Spitzenkandidat’ system, which was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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