EU Gears Up to Appoint New President
Lisa Bryant, Voice of America, 19.11.2009
Quote
Hours
before European leaders meet in Brussels to choose the European Union's
first permanent president, they remain divided on their choice. [...]
France and Germany are expected to vote for the same candidate.
But everything else is up in the air. Janis Emmanouilidis is a senior
analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels.
"It's very complicated," he said. "You have no consensus yet among
the heads of state and government, among the member states. So it might
take long, there might be an extension until the latest the weekend,
but I think they will try to find a solution."
[...] Meanwhile, there are also calls for a female to fill one of the two new jobs.
"If you look at the EU's top jobs at present, there's no woman in
power. Now a woman in power will play a strong role when it comes to
deciding who will fill the two posts they're going to be talking about
at the extraordinary summit - because Chancellor [Angela] Merkel will
have a great say. But that wouldn't compensate for the fact there are
no women in the tableau," said Emmanouilidis.
Emmanouilidis believes if EU leaders are deadlocked over the presidency job, a woman might emerge as a surprise choice.
See original article here.
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