EU set for mid-November summit on new jobs (Extra)

Oct 29, 2009, 17:36 GMT

Brussels - The European Union will hold an extraordinary summit on November 12 or 19 to discuss who should become the bloc's new president and top diplomat, diplomats in Brussels said Thursday.

EU leaders had hoped to discuss the issue at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, but that hope was dashed after the Czech constitutional court said that it would not rule on the EU's reforming Lisbon Treaty before November 3.

The Treaty creates the post of EU president and 'high representative,' a foreign minister in all but name.

EU leaders are keen to fill the bloc's new top jobs and name its next executive group, the 27-member European Commission, but they cannot do so until the Czech Republic ratifies the treaty.

Pre-summit talks in Brussels on Thursday saw Europe's two main political blocs agree on how to share the two posts, with the conservatives securing the presidency job and the socialists obtaining the post of high representative.

The deal appeared to put an end to hopes that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair might be named EU president.

Even if the Czech court approves the treaty, Czech President Vaclav Klaus will still have to sign it into law. Klaus has said that he will only do so if Thursday's summit provides guarantees that the treaty's charter of fundamental rights will not allow ethnic Germans expelled from his country in 1945 to claim back their property.

EU leaders were discussing that demand on Thursday night amid fears that Klaus' demand could spark copycat requests from Slovakia and a fierce reaction from Germany, Austria and Hungary.