French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday blasted his EU parnters for failing to reach a consensus on who should get the 28-bloc’s top jobs. Despite an 18-hour summit session that dragged on well into Sunday night and Monday morning, European leaders meeting in Brussels remained divided over how to proceed.
“We have ended today in failure, it’s a very bad image for both the Council and for Europe,” Macron told reporters Monday after 18 hours of talks failed to break a stalemate over who should get the EU’s top jobs.
Leaders are arguing mainly over a successor to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. They had hoped to reach a deal on Sunday night.
However national interests, according to Macron, are getting in the way.
“It is clear that this failure is down sometimes to some personal ambitions,” he added.
“When we are here, of course we all want to defend our country, but ultimately Europe’s best interests should come first. This is impossible when there are so many hidden agendas.”
Up for grabs also at the special summit in Brussels are the presidencies of the European Parliament, the European Council of EU governments, the EU’s foreign policy chief and the head of the European Central Bank, which governs the euro currency.