The ongoing European Union (EU) summit failed to agree on the candidate for the next European Commission president during the first round of discussion on the issue, European Council President and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced early Friday morning.  

"We have exerted efforts, but we have not yet succeeded," said Ahern at a press conference after the discussion, which has lasted from the early Thursday evening till early Friday morning.

Ahern said the EU leaders have discussed "a long list of candidates," which finally was narrowed down to a "short list," which amounts to "8 to 9 persons."

However, "none of them get sufficient support" on the basis of qualified majority, Ahern said, adding that "there is no point" to take a certain candidate to go through qualified majority voting at this stage.

Ahern also denied the report that he proposed a candidate.

"If we have (someone who can get sufficient support), we will put forward," said the prime minister.

He said the EU leaders would "possibly" discuss the issue again Friday night after they talked about the EU Constitution, and Friday would be "a long day" again.

Speculation on the candidate to the next EC boss hit fever-pitch on the first day of the EU summit and names were circulated among the media include Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verfohstadt and European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten.

According to the EU rules, the selected candidate by the EU summit will have to be presented to the European Parliament for approval. After the approval, the next EC president will take the top job of the EU headquarters on November 1, succeeding current EC President Romano Prodi.

(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2004)