欧盟的领导职位

　　Indecision time

　　悬而未决之时

　　European Union leaders squabble but fail to agree on their top jobs

　　欧盟领导们虽历经唇枪舌战，但就领导职位分配问题仍未达成一致意见。

　　MATTEO RENZI summed it up best. The Italian prime minister suggested that “they just had to send an SMS and we could have saved the cost of the official flight. In any case, it was a nice opportunity to meet and wish Angela Merkel a happy birthday.” Indeed, European Union leaders in Brussels toasted the German chancellor's 60th birthday this week. But they failed to settle the main business: a package of top EU jobs.

　　Matteo Renzi的概括最到位。这位意大利总理认为“他们发个短信就成了，这样我们可以省下公务飞行的费用。但不管怎么说，这是个不错的机会——我见到了 Angela Merke并祝她生日快乐。”确实，在布鲁塞尔的欧盟的领导这周为德国总理祝贺60岁生日。不过他们并没有就主要事务达成一致意见：欧盟的领导职位如何分配的问题。

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　　A day after the European Parliament endorsed the much-contested nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission, leaders were meant to pick names for the other big posts: the high representative for foreign affairs, the president of the European Council and a new president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers. The stumbling block was Mr Renzi's nomination of Federica Mogherini as the foreign-policy supremo. As Italy's foreign minister of five months, she has barely more experience than Catherine Ashton did when she was named to the post in 2009. But she ran into objections from several eastern European countries, among them Poland and the Baltic states, who see Ms Mogherini as too pro-Russian. It did not help that she visited Moscow just before the summit and talked up the Kremlin-backed South Stream pipeline.

　　在欧洲议会批准最有争议的提名候选人Jean-Claude Juncker为欧洲委员会主席之后，领导人要按着名单为其他重要职位选人：有负责涉外事务高级代表，欧洲理事会主席以及欧元集团财政部长的新头。陷入僵局的由头是Renzi提名Federica Mogherini为外国政策的掌舵人。2009年当她被提名为外交部长的时候，她只当过五个月的意大利外交部长，就经验而言比Catherine Ashton好不了多少。但她遭遇了一些欧洲东部国家的反对，其中包括波兰和波罗的海国家。这些国家认为Mogherini过于亲俄了。然而这并不妨碍她就在（布鲁塞尔）峰会之前前往莫斯科并大肆宣扬俄国政府支持的南溪天然气管道项目。

　　The Mogherini row made it inevitable that the whole package would need to be agreed at the same time so that all could be satisfied. Leaders thus found themselves speaking in circumlocutions. They discussed the balance between left and right, north and south, men and women and, belatedly, east and west—all without mentioning specific names.

　　对Mogherini的争议使得同时一次性任命欧盟高级领导并让诸方满意的计划落空。领导人不久发现他们的讲话就是兜圈子。他们彼此争论，要保持左翼与右翼的平衡，要保持北部和南部的平衡，男性与女性的平衡，还有后来加入的东部与西部的平衡——所有这些都要避免提及那些特定的名字。

　　Ms Mogherini remains the woman to beat. Both Mrs Merkel and France's President Fran?ois Hollande said the high representative should be from the centre-left political group. Whatever their misgivings about the Italian foreign minister, most leaders have other priorities. The British do not want to be at the centre of another fight after losing the bust-up over Mr Juncker; the Germans are more concerned to get the right dealmaker as president of the European Council; and the French want to ensure that their commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, gets a senior economic job in the commission. Mr Juncker, diplomats say, was not ready to make any promises. Herman Van Rompuy, the current president of the European Council, will now consult again before a special summit on August 30th, but doing a deal even then may still be hard.

　　Mogherini的留下保证了女性胜利。Merkel 和法国总统Fran?ois Hollande认为高级代表应当出自中左翼的政治团体。但是无论他们对意大利外交部长的是否心存疑虑，大部分领导人都有自己的小九九。不列颠不希望在关于Juncker的争吵失利之后成为另一项斗争的焦点；德国人更关心选出能正确决策的欧盟理事会主席；而法国想着确保他们的委员Pierre Moscovici能在委员会获得一个高级经济席位。外交官称，Juncker不准备作出任何承诺。直到8月30日一个特殊峰会来临之际，现任欧盟理事会主席Herman Van Rompuy都将继续充当顾问。不过恐怕即便那时都难达成一致意见。