BRUSSELS (DPA) – European Union leaders are set to meet late on Sunday (June 30) to settle on who will take over the bloc’s key top posts, including president of the European Commission.

Member states and EU lawmakers have been deadlocked ever since EU elections in May handed losses to the centre-right and centre-left parties, but strengthened the liberals and Greens.

Along with nominating the successor to commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, leaders are due to put forth names for the EU’s top diplomat and heads of the European Parliament, European Council and European Central Bank.

After EU leaders nominate candidates, they must secure majority backing in the European Parliament. The parliament has insisted that the commission president be chosen from the top candidates who stood for their respective parties in May’s elections – a stance that has drawn steady opposition from French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Saturday, however, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that leaders are increasingly likely to pick the next commission president out of a group of top candidates put forward by the parliament.

Dr Merkel said that Mr Manfred Weber, a German EU lawmakers from the centre-right European People’s Party, and Mr Frans Timmermans, of the Socialists, were definitely part of the solution in the leadership debate.

The top candidates put forward after the elections were Mr Weber, Mr Timmermans and EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager of the liberal alliance, which came in third in the May elections.

One idea floated is that Mr Timmermans will be nominated for commission president, while Mr Weber will become either the parliament’s president or first vice-president of the commission.

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