What’s going on with choosing the EU’s top jobs?

Politics Explained: Europe’s top politicians have been battling it out behind closed doors to decide who will lead the bloc in Brussels

EU leaders have put forward a slate of nominees for the bloc’s top roles. It took them several summits to decide on the names, after a series of negotiations and compromises.

Despite the all-night working and macho 15-hour sessions, they actually didn’t take that long by historical standards. That’s because Donald Tusk, the current European Council president, was keen for leaders to make their choice before the European parliament chose its president.

There are two interesting reasons for this. One is so the leaders on the council could keep the upper hand against the parliament – which given time to get up and running might have got assertive in the selection process. The second reason is that the parliament president slot being open makes a decision easier for the other jobs, because it can be used for horse trading.