Financial Times: Mogherini Unacceptable to Baltics, Poland
The three Baltic nations and Poland are leading a charge to drop the candidacy of Italian Federica Mogherini from succeeding Catherine Ashton as the EU's foreign affairs representative, says the Financial Times.
The Italian is blamed by the four nations to be weak on Russia, including inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to a summit of EU and Asian leaders in Milan in October, the Financial Times said.
Jean-Claude Juncker, who was selected to lead the European Commission, has to have all 28 commissioners in place before the summer break, with the confirmation votes set for September and although he will not need a consensus on any commissioner post, including the foreign affairs post, he said he hopes to achieve one.
If Mogherini is blocked, two Russian hardliners, Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland and Sweden's Carl Bildt, will also be ruled out, leaving Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, the current humanitarian aid commissioner, as a consensus candidate.