What does it take to be picked for a top job at the EU?<br /><br />Most of the candidates for positions at the European Commission are officials looking to leave domestic politics behind.<br /><br />But who calls the shots on who gets what?<br /><br />Officially, EU member states vote together. <br /><br />The result is decided by qualified majority.<br /><br />In reality, the answer lies at the end of the road to Berlin and with Germany’s Angela Merkel.<br /><br />“I think that no decision can be taken against her, that’s how i would formulate it and i think she s the one who in the end will be determining in which direction this is going,” said <br />Janis Emmanouilidis of the European Policy Centre.<br /><br />EU leaders will have to seek a consensus on who gets what policy area.<br /><br />Foreign policy, trade, competition or economic affairs.<br /><br />But a candidate’s CV is not the only factor.<br /><br />There are criteria to take into account.<br /><br />“At the end there will be a package involving all this different posts with all this different criteria, north-south, east-west, young-old, euro-non euro, female-male,” said the EPC’s Emmanouilidis.<br /><br />Then there’s the ‘British’ elephant in the room.<br /><br />The UK bitterly opposed Jean Claude Juncker becoming the next Commission president.<br /><br />British diplomats say David Cameron will seek a top economic post in return.
