Valdis Dombrovskis, the former prime minister of Latvia, has today (6 March) withdrawn from the contest to be the centre-right European Peoples’ Party (EPP) candidate for president of the European Commission. He said the EPP should rally behind one nominee – Jean-Claude Juncker.

“To achieve the best results EPP must unite its efforts to support Jean-Claude Juncker’s candidacy to EC president,” Dombrovskis said in a tweet from the EPP congress in Dublin, which opened this morning.

This leaves Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg, and Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market, from France, as the only candidates for tomorrow’s delegate vote in Dublin. There has been speculation that Barnier may step aside tonight as well, leaving Juncker unopposed. However EPP sources say this is not likely.

German MEP Martin Schulz was elected by 91% of delegates at the centre-left PES party congress in Rome on Saturday (1 March). Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt stood unopposed at the liberal ALDE party’s congress in Brussels on 1 February, when the European commissioner for the budget, Olli Rehn from Finland, dropped out of the contest following a backroom deal with Verhofstadt.

Europe’s 12 centre-right heads of government are currently at an emergency summit on Ukraine in Brussels. But they will fly to Dublin tonight for a dinner of centre-right leaders.