EU leaders adopted a strategic agenda for the next five years, voted to extend economic sanctions to Russia, stressed a new condemnation of Turkish activities in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, but failed to find a solution to the main topics of concern of the extraordinary summit in Brussels.

The top jobs in several bodies and institutions remain unfilled for which bilateral meetings between the leaders have been announced for the upcoming period. The meeting in Brussels, which was to decide on candidates for European Commission presidents, the European Parliament and the European Council, began with a delay of more than three hours, and the talks proved “complicated as they seek more time” as described by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

The decisions on four of the five positions depend on the proposals of the European Council. The conditions for those four positions are clear to me. Two must belong to men and two to women. I focus on that. In the final distribution of positions, there should be a man or woman from the east of Europe. For me, the competence of the candidates and their commitment to the European project are the most important, said French President Emanuel Macron.

After initial speculation that European leaders at the G20 Summit in Osaka reached agreement on naming Socialist France Timmermans as the new president of the European Commission, however, conservative representatives, that is, the European People’s Party (EPP) refused to support such a proposal.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on behalf of the EPP has said that it is “impossible for them to support the choice of the socialist”. Representatives of the Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) opposed the election of Timmermans, as well as official Rome.

In addition to the election of the President of the European Commission, the Union should appoint new Presidents of the European Parliament and the European Council, the Head of Diplomacy and the Governor of the European Central Bank. But apart from the political package of candidates for top positions in the EU, a geographical and gender balance must also be provided between member states.