EU horse trading

As European leaders arrived in the Belgian capital for a working dinner the fear was almost palpable that they might miss a historic opportunity to boost the bloc's international stature.

The meal could have turned into an all-night affair since there appeared to be scant support for the front runners on a lengthening list of prospective candidates for the EU's two top posts.

The concern even prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to urge her fellow European leaders to rally behind what she called the most "suitable candidates."

"We need suitable candidates and broad consensus," Merkel said as she arrived in Brussels early Thursday evening. "We must work together."

Breakthrough for Europe

That all now seems moot after diplomats close to the negotiations said that EU leaders had agreed to appoint Belgian Prime Minister Harman Van Rompuy as EU president and Britain's Catherine Ashton as its foreign affairs chief.

"This is a breakthrough," said Martin Schulz, a German legislator who heads the Socialist grouping in the European Parliament.

Before the meeting, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, expressed concern that some leaders were prepared to opt for the lowest common denominator, rather than the candidate with the highest international profile.

He said some of his fellow foreign ministers feared that "certain heads of government were leaning towards a minimal solution for the presidency question, which could reduce our chance of having a clear voice in the world." Bildt said this could mean "missing a historic occasion."

Earlier Thursday, the Dutch premier Jan Peter Balkenende, a conservative, ruled himself out of the presidency, while Europe's Socialists proposed the EU's trade commissioner, Britain's Catherine Ashton, as the new foreign policy chief.

The ultimate breakthrough apparently came when the move was backed by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who then said that London would drop its support for Tony Blair as a candidate for the presidency.

Differences over political affiliations, geographical considerations and even gender have been a severe strain on the selection process over the last several weeks. There has even been frequent bickering over what role exactly the president should play as the top representative of the European Union.

gb/dpa/AFP

Editor: Trinity Hartman