British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met separately in Brussels, where the G-7 heads of government are in talks, to thrash out their differences over who should succeed Jose Manuel Barroso, the outgoing head of the European Commission.
This is the first time that differences have arisen amongst E.U. leaders over the appointment to the most powerful E.U. post, and is the direct fallout of the European Parliament elections which saw the dramatic rise in the vote-share of anti-E.U. parties across Europe. While Ms. Merkel has backed former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker, Mr. Cameron has called him “too Federalist, too old school and not the sort of person to deliver reform in Europe”.
Under pressure from the Eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party of Nigel Farage at home (which won the highest vote-share in the European Parliament elections) Mr. Cameron would like to be seen as tough in relation to the E.U., and has been calling for a restructuring of the relationship between Brussels and London. Mr. Juncker is seen as being inflexible and resistant to the sort of change in the E.U. the U.K. would like to see. If he is chosen, Mr. Cameron may choose to advance the in-out referendum on E.U. membership which is scheduled for 2017, if this government comes back to power in next year’s elections.
The BBC quoted a Downing Street source as saying that the two leaders had “friendly, candid and constructive discussions”. Clearly, the differences are deep, as no consensus has emerged yet.
