The European Union was deadlocked over who should replace Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday night, with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel at loggerheads over who should be the president of the European Commission for the next five years.

As she arrived for an EU summit in Brussels, Germany’s Chancellor insisted that Manfred Weber, the lead candidate of the centre-Right European People’s Party, should be appointed in line with the Spitzenkandidat process.

Mr Macron, who is affiliated with the European liberal party, is the most influential EU leader looking to ditch the Spitzenkandidat system and reassert the right of EU leaders to choose the commission president.

That system, which was used for the first time to appoint Mr Juncker in 2014, ties the commission presidency to the results of the European elections. The European Parliament, which must approve the appointment, insists the system must be respected.

The French president is backing Danish liberal Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner famed for taking on US tech giants, for the job.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, had said he was optimistic a decision could be made.

But late on Thursday night, he said EU leaders would meet again on June 30 to discuss the allocation of the bloc's top jobs, after no majority could be reached on any candidate.