EU leaders reached an agreement at the summit to reappoint Ursula von der Leyen as head of the influential European Commission, while also appointing Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the bloc’s chief diplomat.
Late at night, EU officials announced that the most important institutional positions in the bloc for the next five years would be distributed, with former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa set to lead the European Council, which unites the member states.
All three candidates are from the centrist alliance that has dominated the EU Parliament following this month’s elections, despite the successes of the far-right, including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, who publicly opposed the agreement on the top positions.
While the 62-year-old Costa will automatically succeed Council President Charles Michel later this year, the 65-year-old von der Leyen and 47-year-old Kallas must secure the majority support of the European Parliament, starting with the vote for Commission president in July, which is expected to be tense.
Tested during her first term by numerous crises—from the Covid pandemic to the war in Ukraine—former German defense minister von der Leyen, if confirmed, will face no less difficult challenges, ranging from the Russian threat to climate change and the rising China.
The final lineup was not particularly secret, as an inner group of leaders had reached a draft agreement on the trio days earlier.
The agreement distributes the posts among von der Leyen’s center-right European People's Party (EPP), Costa’s Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and Kallas’s centrist Renew Europe party.
MEPs are expected to reappoint Roberta Metsola from the EPP as President of the European Parliament.
However, even with the centrists in a strong position, diplomats indicated there was little desire to push through the agreement without a consensus.
Hungarian nationalist leader Viktor Orban condemned it as a conspiracy, claiming that "European voters have been deceived," although his opposition was not enough to derail the agreement, which required the support of 15 out of the 27 leaders.
Leaders seemed more concerned with securing the support of Meloni, who called the agreement process “surreal” and accused her fellow leaders of acting like “oligarchs.”
Her argument was that the electoral success of her far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, set to be the third-largest force in the European Parliament, as well as Italy’s position as the bloc's third-largest economy, should be reflected in the EU leadership. | BGNES
