EU leaders early Friday failed to agree on nominees for the European Commission presidency and other top posts, and said they will reconvene on June 30 to try again.

There was such sharp disagreement among the heads of state and government in Brussels that they could not even agree on exactly how they had failed to agree.

After a dinner meeting on Thursday that stretched into the early hours of the following morning, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Spitzenkandidaten or "lead candidates" of the three biggest pro-EU political families had been eliminated from contention.

"They have been taken out tonight, which allows us to relaunch the process," Macron said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, was less clear. She said Council President Donald Tusk had reported, after extensive consultations, that there is no majority for any of the three lead candidates: German MEP Manfred Weber of her conservative European People's Party (EPP); First Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans of the Socialists; and Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager of the liberals. But she left open the possibility that that could change.

"This is a situation that presents us with challenges, of course — that’s very clear" — Angela Merkel, German chancellor

Merkel and other officials tried to suggest that the political fortunes of the nominees could still be reversed, even though leaders of the Socialist and liberal-centrist groups in Parliament declared Thursday they would not support Weber, leaving him well short of a majority among pro-EU forces.

Selecting a new roster of EU leaders is always a difficult task, requiring intensive negotiations, and in 2014 the process lasted through the summer with a final decision not reached until late August. But unlike in 2014, when a deal between the conservative and Socialist lead candidates, Jean-Claude Juncker — who became Commission president — and Martin Schulz, presented a clear path forward, the 28 heads of state and government this time face a virtually blank slate.

Merkel noted that the main center-right and center-left parties no longer control a sufficient number of seats in the Parliament to reach a deal among themselves and must now reach wider to form a pro-EU majority coalition that will include at least the liberals and probably the Greens.

"Of course, we want a common solution with the European Parliament," Merkel stressed at a brief news conference in the early hours of Friday.

Merkel notably avoided a direct answer to a question on whether she or the EPP would stick with Weber, whom she had previously made clear is her preferred candidate. She said the EU leaders and their parties would need to take stock of Tusk's assessment.

"Parliament will certainly also take a position and then we’ll see what that means. So I can only give a final answer to your question at the end of the process. But this is a situation that presents us with challenges, of course — that’s very clear.”

One of the challenges for Merkel is that Weber is a senior member of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of her own Christian Democrats. The chancellor will have to hold delicate talks with leaders of both her own party and the CSU to chart a way forward.

Tusk ducks

Tusk, speaking at a news conference that began shortly after 2 a.m., did not directly answer a question about whether Weber's candidacy had been definitely rejected by the leaders during their deliberations.

"We need more time to discuss the whole landscape," said Tusk, who also hails from the EPP. "This is why we go back to the issue at the end of June and today is too early to prejudge names."

The leaders said they would reconvene in Brussels on the evening of Sunday, June 30 shortly after several of them are due to return from a G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Informal conversations about the EU's future are expected to continue in Japan with Tusk, Juncker, Merkel and Macron all scheduled to be there, along with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Asked why leaders think they would have a better shot at reaching an accord in just 10 days' time, Juncker said it is unlikely the odds would improve.

“These things take a bit of time — it’s just like a government formation" — Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands

"I don't expect that," Juncker said. "But it has to be done."

The leaders are under pressure to reach agreement on a package of top positions before the new European Parliament holds its first session on July 2 and elects a president.

Despite Thursday's dinner ending without agreement, Macron said that he does not think leaders had failed. "I don't have the feeling that I have gone through failure," he said.

But in a sign of how little progress they had made, and just how wide open the search for a new Commission president remains, Tusk was asked if perhaps he had put his own name forward. He said he had not.

The attitudes of some of the leaders reflects their national political cultures. If Macron, whose country has little experience with coalition politics, was more categorical in saying the lead candidates were set aside, Rutte, who has deep experience in brokering deals with rival parties, was far more circumspect.

“These things take a bit of time — it’s just like a government formation," Rutte told reporters. “In the Netherlands, it took seven months the last time, so I don’t think it’s such a big catastrophe.”

“There’s currently no majority for any of the leading candidates for the Commission top job — Vestager, Timmermans or Weber,” Rutte said, but noted this was only a "half-time score."

Rutte is one of the negotiators in the Council working on behalf of the liberals, but the official Dutch government position is to support Timmermans, the Socialist, who is a former Dutch foreign minister. Rutte said Timmermans still has a chance, but he added, "It is truly very unpredictable."

"I have noted with a lot of amusement that it is very difficult to replace me" — Jean-Claude Juncker

Still, Rutte said that a solution would be reached at some point.

“It will have to work out sooner or later," he said. "We can’t make Juncker stay on for the rest of his life.”

The EPP President Joseph Daul, voicing anger at how the other parties had dismissed Weber's candidacy, suggested on Thursday that Juncker could indeed stay on past the official October 31 end of his mandate, perhaps even until next spring.

Juncker, leaving the Council shortly before 3 a.m. admitted taking a bit of pleasure in the difficult deliberations of the heads of state and government.

"I have noted with a lot of amusement," he said, "that it is very difficult to replace me."

Lili Bayer, Hanne Cokelaere, Ivo Oliveira and Andrew Gray contributed reporting.