Brussels - European Union leaders were close to a deal on appointing Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the bloc's first full-time president and Britain's Catherine Ashton as its new foreign policy chief, diplomats in Brussels said Thursday. The posts have been created by the Lisbon Treaty, which comes into force on December 1.
"There is more or less consensus regarding these names," a source close to the talks told the German Press Agency dpa.
The two posts are meant to give the EU a higher profile abroad and to help make its foreign policy more coherent.
