European Union leaders engaged in a first skirmish Tuesday over who should become the next chief of the European Commission, giving themselves a short deadline to agree on the bloc's top jobs and a target of assigning half of them to women.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was upset with French President Emmanuel Macron's public dismissal of Berlin's preferred candidate, a center-right German lawmaker Manfred Weber, as the 28 national EU leaders bargained behind closed doors over the bloc's new leadership for the next five years.
"The key for me is for the people at the most sensitive positions to share our project and be the most charismatic, creative and competent possible," Macron told reporters as the summit ended in Brussels.