Taoiseach Enda Kenny backed Jean-Claude Juncker to take command of the European Commission as divisions deepened between EU leaders over the nomination of the former Luxembourg premier.
Arriving in Brussels for a summit dinner with EU leaders, Mr Kenny dismissed a report in the Financial Times that said he was one of three candidates for the presidency of the commission.
"I actually reminded people that the front of the Financial Times is not correct actually in asserting that there's a blockage to Jean-Claude Juncker," the Taoiseach told reporters.
“I reminded people at the meeting that we had a congress in Dublin, a very successful congress. We had a convention, we had a contest, we had an election and we nominated Jean-Claude Juncker to the president of the commission.”
Mr Juncker is the candidate of Fine Gael’s European affiliate, the European People’s Party, who won the most seats in the European Parliament in the elections last weekend.
Although this puts Mr Juncker in prime position to succeed José Manuel Barroso this summer, his nomination has run into opposition from Britain, the Netherlands and other countries including Hungary.
"The EPP has a very clear decision made and has a very strong candidate, " the Taoiseach said, adding that he had made his view clear at a pre-summit meeting of the group earlier in the day. Seeking support The Taoiseach confirmed that he had spoken to British prime minister David Cameron by phone on Sunday. And he said he had outlined to Mr Cameron the process through which Fine Gael, as a member of the EPP, participated in and supported the nomination of Mr Juncker.
"The EPP has a very clear decision made," Mr Kenny said, adding that Mr Cameron had "very strong views" on the two proposed candidates. The other leading contender, European Parliament president Martin Schulz, effectively conceded defeat yesterday when he backed a proposal for EU heads of state and government to consider Mr Juncker's nomination first. Mr Cameron is one of a number of EU leaders opposed to the Spitzenkandidat system advanced by the parliament, which wants the leadership of the commission to be directly determined by the results of the European elections.
Raised concerns Other premiers who have raised concerns about the process include Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.
Neither Mr Cameron nor Mr Rutte is a member of the EPP but their views matter as the leaders of 28 member states had the right to nominate the commission president. The leaders are obliged to take account of the election result but there is no provision for a Spitzenkandidat system in the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out the nomination process.
The decision will be taken by qualified majority, meaning that it does not require unanimity. However, EU leaders will be looking for consensus on the issue.
Arriving in Brussels yesterday, Mr Cameron said the results of the election had sent “a very clear message that the European Union cannot just shrug off these results and carry on as before.
“We need change. We need an approach that recognises that Brussels has got too big, too busy, too interfering,” Mr Cameron.
“It should be nation states wherever possible, Europe only when necessary . . . and of course we need people running these organisations that really understand that and can build a Europe that is about openness, competitiveness and flexibility, not about the past.”
This was taken as an implicit swipe at Mr Juncker, a veteran European figure who was involved in preparations for the single currency and chaired the group of euro zone finance ministers for most of the sovereign debt crisis.
Still, Mr Juncker gained momentum as the other political groupings in the parliament backed his candidacy.
Merkel's support However, in a possible setback for Mr Juncker's campaign, late last night following the meeting of EU leaders, German chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that, should the council negotiate a different position than the parliament, this would not be in breach of EU rules.
Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann was more direct, telling reporters that “we should try to persuade others as far as possible, but not let them hold us up”.
Asked if Mr Kenny could be a suitable candidate for one of the top EU jobs, former minister of state Lucinda Creighton said it was “possible”. She was in Brussels for the meeting of the EPP, of which she remains a vice-president.
“In terms of the foreign policy position – essentially the foreign minister of the European Union – I don’t know how interested he would be, but it’s a possibility,” Ms Creighton said.
