European Union leaders were locked in negotiations all night over the bloc’s top jobs, but as day broke on Monday there was still no deal on who should lead its executive as political groups jockeyed for influence.
When the leaders of the EU’s 28 member-states gathered for the emergency summit on Sunday, Dutch socialist Frans Timmermans was in pole position to replace Jean-Claude Juncker as the next European Commission president, under a deal hatched on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan last week.
However, the plan encountered stiff opposition from eastern European states as well as the centre-right European People’s Party bloc before the summit even got underway, forcing Donald Tusk, the head of the European Council, to spend the night holding bilateral talks in search of a consensus candidate.