European leaders have agreed a deal to fill the EU’s most important jobs, backing Christine Lagarde to lead the European Central Bank and Ursula von der Leyen to be president of the European Commission.
On the third day of a gruelling summit in Brussels, EU leaders gave near-unanimous support for a deal based on Ms Lagarde, France’s ex-finance minister who is now head of the IMF, and Ms von der Leyen, Germany’s defence minister.
But the proposed deal remains unconfirmed because it is facing resistance from parts of the European Parliament, which must support Ms von der Leyen’s appointment. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to abstain on the deal, because of resistance from some of her party’s coalition partners in Berlin.