EU leaders will nominate a tandem of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as the next European Commission president and Javier Solana of Spain as Europe's future first foreign minister at a brief special summit today.
Less than two weeks after failing acrimoniously to find a consensus figure to head the European Union executive, the 25 leaders will meet for 45 minutes at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) to endorse a compromise package of top personnel decisions.
The 48-year-old conservative Portuguese leader told a presidential-style news conference at a Nato summit in Istanbul, Turkey, that he would announce his decision today after consulting national leaders.
Outgoing Commission President Romano Prodi, whose five-year term ends on October 31, telephoned Mr Barroso to congratulate him, describing him in a statement as "the right person to hold this office of great responsibility and sensitivity".
A strong Atlanticist and economic liberal, Mr Barroso advocates gradual European integration with a special eye to the needs of small member states who make up the majority of EU countries.
He emerged as a compromise candidate after the leaders, split between supporters and opponents of the US-led war in Iraq and of federal EU integration or a union of nation states, were unable to agree on Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt or British EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.
The European Parliament is expected to endorse Mr Barroso, a member of the largest group, the conservative European People's Party, in a vote on July 21. But the Liberals, Socialists and Greens also said they needed to know more about his view on EU integration before deciding how to vote.
"If Mr Durao Barroso is going to avoid the stigma of being a 'lowest common denominator' candidate he is going to have to come out of the blocks in style," said Graham Watson, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrat group.
EU leaders will also reappoint Mr Solana, 61, as their foreign and security policy high representative and formally identify him as "foreign minister-designate", an EU source said.
That means the former Spanish foreign minister and Nato secretary-general will automatically become a vice-president of the Commission and take over its large external relations budget and staff once a new EU constitution is ratified.
The target date is 2007, but it could be delayed if one or more country votes against the charter in planned referendums.
Diplomats said there was strong suspicion that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had won a pledge from Mr Barroso to appoint German Commissioner Guenter Verheugen as another vice-president and "super-commissioner" for economic policy.
The leaders will also reappoint Frenchman Pierre de Boissieu to the powerful post of deputy secretary-general of the EU Council, running the secretariat that supports policy-setting meetings of ministers and national officials.
A former French ambassador to the EU, related by marriage to the late President Charles de Gaulle, he is one of the most feared and respected backroom fixers in Brussels.
Mr Prodi said the choice of Mr Barroso "demonstrates once more the Union's ability to reach agreement on thorny issues, just a few days after the Constitution was approved".
He congratulated Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, holder of the rotating EU presidency, for his diplomatic skill in finding unanimity on such complex issues.