BRUSSELS: National leaders of the European Union are likely to meet for a summit in Brussels on May 28, two days after a European Parliament election, to discuss who should run the EU executive for the next five years, officials said on Friday.
The meeting, similar to one held after the previous vote in 2014, would give leaders a chance to discuss their preferences for who will succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, three senior EU officials told Reuters.
Parliament, which will convene on July 2 after being elected on May 23-26, is pushing the European Council of national leaders to nominate Juncker’s successor from among the lead candidates of winning parties. But many national leaders are reluctant to accept this so-called Spitzenkandidat process.
Council President Donald Tusk is likely to announce plans for the special summit during a gathering of leaders in Sibiu, Romania next Thursday. They are due formally to nominate a Commission chief at a Brussels summit on June 20-21. The nominee would then require endorsement by the European Parliament.
EU leaders set to meet just after EU election
EU leaders set to meet just after EU election
- The meeting, similar to one held after the previous vote in 2014, would give leaders a chance to discuss their preferences for who will succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission
- Council President Donald Tusk is likely to announce plans for the special summit during a gathering of leaders in Sibiu, Romania next Thursday
California joins UN health network following US departure from WHO
- California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people
CALIFORNIA: California said on Friday it will become the first US state to join the World Health Organization’s global outbreak response network following the Trump administration’s decision to pull Washington out of the WHO.
The network, comprised of more than 360 technical institutions, responds to public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries. It has tackled major public health events, including COVID-19. The state’s decision to join the network comes more than a year after US President Donald Trump gave notice that Washington would depart from the WHO. On Thursday, it officially withdrew from the agency, saying its decision reflected failures in the UN health agency’s management of the pandemic.
California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people.
“California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state in WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.”
The governor’s office said he met with the WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, where they discussed collaborating to detect and respond to emerging public health threats.
The WHO did not immediately respond when reached for comment.
