Finnish PM wants "no additional names" for top EU posts

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HELSINKI, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne said on Monday that he hoped "no new names would be added" to the selection base of top European Union (EU) positions.

Talking to Finnish media after the failure of the EU heads of government to reach agreement on key nominations in an overnight session, Rinne said the agreement on electing Dutch social democrat Frans Timmermans as the new president of the European Commission had been "almost reached", but then "problems emerged".

Rinne compared the events in Brussels to his 20-year experience as a trade union negotiator in Finland. He said he has made about a thousand agreements and he has never seen a situation that agreement evaporates when it is "almost at the handshake level".

Rinne declined to explain the reasons for the faltering of the agreement. He said he had supported the election of Timmermans, but was no longer optimistic about that.

The presidency of the EU transferred from Romania to Finland at midnight Sunday. The new role of Finland did not change the role of Rinne in the summit as the negotiation about the nominations was pursued by the president of the European Council Donald Tusk.

The deliberation in Brussels did not cover the appointment of the next president of the European Central Bank. Rinne said it was "good for Finland" that the Central Bank president's appointment will take place later.

There are two Finnish hopefuls for the role, the former governor of the Bank of Finland Erkki Liikanen and the incumbent governor Olli Rehn.

The Brussels summit will continue on Tuesday. Besides the president of the European Commission, the heads of government are trying to reach agreement on who would be the speaker of the European Parliament, the president of the European Council and the high representative of EU in foreign affairs. Enditem

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