Rome faces barriers in bid to see foreign minister take EU post
(ANSA)
- Berlin, July 18 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that
she had good relations with Premier Matteo Renzi but refused to
comment on Rome's bid to have Italian Foreign Minister Federica
Mogherini nominated as the EU's new high representative for foreign
affairs. "We cooperate with Matteo Renzi in an excellent way,"
Merkel told a press conference when asked about Mogherini, while
stressing that she did not want to comment on the names of possible
candidates for the foreign-policy job.
European
Union leaders are set to meet for a new summit to seek to find an
agreement on top EU positions on August 30, after this week's meeting
in Brussels ended in stalemate. The foreign-policy post is set to go
to a representative from Europe's Socialist bloc, which Renzi's
Democratic Party (PD) belongs to, as part of the deal that saw Jean
Claude Juncker - the candidate of the centre-right European People's
Party (EPP) - nominated as president of the European Commission.
Renzi
has been pushing for Mogherini and has won the support of the
Socialist bloc. But 10-11 countries are reportedly against Mogherini,
above all Poland and other Eastern European countries, on the grounds
that she is too inexperienced and may be soft on Russia. Mogherini,
41, became foreign minister in February after Renzi unseated his PD
colleague Enrico Letta to take the helm of government.
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