Kristalina Georgieva is emerging as the most likely 'consensus' candidate for the post of EU high representative as leaders gather in Brussels on Wednesday for a special summit in a bid to allocate the last two key institutional posts up for grabs.
Social media outlets, especially Twitter, have been buzzing with rumour and counter rumour over who will be nominated to replace the current high representative, Britain's Catherine Ashton and outgoing EU council president Herman Van Rompuy, following an announcement that the start of the summit talks was being put back several hours.
The delay is being interpreted as providing more time for a final round of pre-summit negotiations and last-minute horse-trading between EU leaders on reaching an agreement.
New commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is said to be lobbying hard for Bulgarian prime minister Plamen Oresharski to announce the nomination of Kristalina Georgieva as the country's next European commissioner.
Media reports say that Juncker has had several phone calls with Oresharski in a bid to get the prime minister to put forward Georgieva as a candidate for the foreign policy role, which also doubles up as a commission vice-president post.
However, Oresharsk has remained tight-lipped about who he will put forward as rumours again are circulating that former prime minister and European socialist frontman Sergei Stanishev may have his eyes on the post.
"Georgieva is seen as a much safer pair of hands and particularly so against the other frontrunner for the post, Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini, who critics say lacks experience"
However, Georgieva is seen as a much safer pair of hands and particularly so against the other frontrunner for the post, Italian foreign minister Federica Mogherini, who critics say lacks experience. Several eastern European member states, including Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are strongly opposed to handing the foreign policy role to Rome, which they believe has been too soft on Russia lately, especially over the current Ukraine situation.
Conversely, other names in the frame, such as Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt and Poland's Radosław Sikorski are seen as being too outspoken over Russia, according to sources close to the talks, leaving the discussions looking more likely to end up as a straight fight between Georgieva and Mogherini.
Again, with things changing hourly, speculation is rife that if Mogherini's key Socialist government supporters, Italy's Matteo Renzi and France's François Hollande, acquiesce over the foreign policy post, then the EU's centre-right leaders, including Germany's Angela Merkel, would then drop their opposition to the nomination of Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
"Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb best summed up the wrangling surrounding the summit in a short tweet saying, "The start of the [summit] postponed to 20.00. Not the best of starts. Looks like an all-nighter."
However, with France still reluctant on Thorning-Schmidt on the grounds that Denmark is not part of the eurozone, there is still the likelihood that neither post will be filled come Thursday morning.
Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb best summed up the wrangling surrounding the summit in a short tweet saying, "The start of the [summit] postponed to 20.00. Not the best of starts. Looks like an all-nighter."