UK seeks to delay EU decision on Juncker, says wants consensus
LONDON
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (L)
talks with Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker during an
European Union leaders summit discussing the European Union's long-term
budget in Brussels November 22, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Yves Herman
The effort to block Juncker, seen in London as a bar to EU reform, comes before a meeting of EU leaders in Belgium late next week amid momentum among his supporters to choose Juncker then for one of Europe's most influential policy jobs.
The appointment has become a test of strength for Prime Minister David Cameron, who has made it clear he opposes Juncker as too "federalist" - which in Britain means favouring a more centralised EU - and unlikely to reform the bloc.
If Cameron fails to block Juncker, his authority at home and abroad would be diminished, his pledge of trying to renegotiate Britain's EU ties if re-elected undermined, and he could find it harder to keep his own Eurosceptic lawmakers in line.
Two British diplomatic sources told Reuters Britain was trying to get the EU not to decide on Juncker at the meeting next Thursday and Friday. One source said London argued the job should be decided at the same time as other top EU posts.
The current commission's mandate expires at the end of October, which Britain believes leaves plenty of time to decide the lineup. If it could win a delay, momentum for Juncker might be lost.
"The die is not cast until the European Council (EU leaders) issue their nomination," a spokeswoman for Cameron told reporters on Friday.
"We think that there are many possible candidates out there that we could be considering that could do the job well."
OUT ON A LIMB
The way the decision was being driven by the European Parliament's preference for Juncker was "suffocating the debate", she added, referring to Britain's insistence that EU leaders and not the assembly choose the candidate.
How the nomination will be handled - either by formal vote on the matter or a quiet announcement - is up to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
"Our point consistently to him and other leaders has been that the European Council has traditionally approached this decision with a consensus," said the spokeswoman.
Cameron will meet Van Rompuy in London on Monday to set out Britain's opposition to Juncker's possible appointment and voice his concerns about the selection process.
When there was strong opposition to Chris Patten, Britain's pick for the top job in 2004, his spokeswoman said London had accepted that and agreed to move on to discuss other candidates, suggesting the same should happen now.
"We recognised that there would need to be further discussions so that the Council could find consensus behind a single candidate," she said. "We think people should be focusing on how we could find a consensual candidate."
Cameron's "Stop Juncker" campaign has faltered and he has so far failed to persuade other EU leaders to speak out against the Luxembourger. The fact that Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly backs Juncker has made his task even harder.
Merkel said on Friday she did not believe Britain would change its mind about the post of European Commission president.
"I think Britain has made its position clear. And I don't think that position will change," she told a news conference.
ALTERNATIVES
Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas, who met Merkel in Berlin on Friday, told Reuters he backed Juncker.
He said he understood the anger of many colleagues in the European Council over the process with lead candidates, but Juncker should not be rejected purely because he was a top candidate.
"I look at Jean-Claude Juncker's programme and I see many things that I think Europe needs, so I do support Juncker and I do support finding a broader consensus."
Roivas said Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt would be a "very strong candidate" for the post of European Council president.
"But of course there are many names on the table, so it is a bit early to say," he said. "But as a candidate, I think she has very many positive qualities needed for the job. I think she would have very strong support."
On Friday, Cameron called one of his few remaining allies on the issue, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. A statement from Cameron's office after the call said that both leaders had agreed they were opposed to having a candidate "imposed on them" by the European Parliament.
Cameron, who has promised to try to renegotiate Britain's EU relationship if re-elected next year before offering Britons an in/out EU membership referendum, has said he will oppose Juncker "right to the end".
He has expressed frustration that fellow EU leaders who have uttered "interesting views" about Juncker in private have not done so publicly and is likely to ask them to outline their stances at next week's meetings.
(Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Editing by Tom Heneghan
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