Good Luck, Kristalina!

EU leaders meet in Brussels on Saturday afternoon to decide who will be the next President of the European Council and EU’s foreign policy chief.

Besides Bulgaria’s Kristalina Georgieva, there are three other potential candidates to replace Catherine Ashton as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy:  Italy’s Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans.

Bulgaria’s caretaker Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki, who officially named  Kristalina Georgieva as candidate for the top post in the next European Commission, has called for broad non-partisan support for the nomination and asked the leader of the Party of European Socialists (PES) Sergei Stanishev to throw his weight behind the unique opportunity to have Georgieva elected.

Sergei Stanishev has replied he’ll back Georgieva's nomination for the post of EU foreign policy chief if EU leaders decided to give the position to the European People’s Party.

Mogherini has been supported strongly by the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and backed by the EU's social democratic leaders.

Georgieva, a former World Bank Vice President, currently is European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response in the outgoing EU executive body.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk  is the front-runner for the post of  President of the European Council currently held by Herman Van Rompuy. Another possible candidate is Denmark's Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

“Will the leaders choose the best candidates for the jobs or will they play EU politics, looking to balance their choice to satisfy the interests of the main political...