European Union leaders launched a new round of talks yesterday in desperate hopes of producing a breakthrough in a diplomatic fight over who should fill top leadership posts at the 28-nation bloc.

Leaders of member countries have so far twice failed to make the key appointments, which include picking a replacement for Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the EU’s powerful executive arm, the European Commission, and for Donald Tusk as head of the agenda-setting European Council.Recommended Video

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Some discussed the roster of upcoming vacancies, which by November will include the EU’s top diplomat, the president of the European Parliament and the chief of the European Central Bank, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan that concluded Saturday.

“There were a number of European countries in Osaka that discussed the issue, but there are no concrete compromises,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters as he arrived in Brussels for Sunday’s talks.