Merkel ally backs Juncker for EU presidency: report

(BERLIN) - The speaker of the German parliament, an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, backs Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker for European Union president, a press report cited him as saying on Friday.

"If the criteria for choosing the (EU's) first president are experience, reputation, competence and profile, then we don't need to look any further, because nobody meets these requirements more perfectly than Jean-Claude Juncker," Norbert Lammert told Saturday's Frankfurter Allgemeine daily.

Lammert, who is officially Germany's second highest representative, added that the fact that Juncker is not from one of the "EU big powers" also counted in his favour.

Juncker, 54, is prime minister and finance minister of Luxembourg and head of the Eurogroup gathering of eurozone finance ministers. He is currently the 27-nation EU's longest-serving head of government.

Lammert's is the first comment from Berlin on who might become the EU's first president, a post enshrined in the bloc's Lisbon Treaty ratified this month after a long and difficult gestation, along with a new foreign policy supremo.

EU leaders are scheduled to decide at a summit at EU headquarters in Brussels on November 19.

Other names have also surfaced for the top job including Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

London is still putting forward former premier Tony Blair, who seems to have joined the ranks of former favourites amid resistance from France, Germany and others believing Britain has not sufficiently embraced the European project.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said last month that France and Germany would back the same candidate.

Contacted by AFP, a German government spokesman declined to say if Lammert's preference for Juncker reflected Berlin's official position.

"We refuse to take part in speculation," the spokesman said.