No president decided for EU
Efforts to agree a new commission president were adjourned after more than five hours early today, with no consensus in sight.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern emerged to confirm that the whole of the dinner discussion had centred on who was the most suitable choice – but no-one came close to winning the necessary qualified majority vote of the 25 EU leaders.
“We need a strong consensus and we are not yet in that position,” said Mr Ahern. “We have a range of good quality candidates and we will come back to this on Friday afternoon or Friday evening.”
Asked if anyone was emerging as a front-runner, the Taoiseach replied: “One person may be ahead of another, but nobody is in a position to attract the necessary qualified majority.”
Without naming names he said eight or nine possibilities had been discussed and the choice had been whittled down to four or five.
Mr Ahern refused to rule out any of the options, including Guy Verhofstast or Chris Patten.
He said the debate had not been bitter or acrimonious and there was no reason for the job search to affect the separate negotiation on an EU constitution.
