European leaders begin negotiations to appoint top EU officials

The heads of State and Government of the European Union begin this Monday the negotiation to renew senior officials of the European Union (EU) after the elections to the European Parliament, with four seats for which they must find a balance of gender, geography and political color.

Although there is always room for surprises, four names appear in all the pools. The conservative German from the European People’s Party (EPP) Ursula von der Leyen runs again for head of the European Commission; the portuguese socialist Antonio Costa, for the European Council; the Maltese conservative of the EPP Roberta Metsola to repeat in the European Parliament and the liberal Estonian Kaja Kallas as high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The leaders of the 27 sit down tonight at the European Council table, around 6:00 p.m. local time, for a informal dinner which is planned as a first approach to this shortlist.

Although it could lead to an agreement in principle, the EU heads of state and government still have a meeting at their formal summit at the end of this month to finalize their decisions.

Before dinner, the heads of state and government of the popular European parties will meet at a hotel in Brussels to agree on their strategy, focused on achieving the re-election of Von der Leyen at the head of the community Executive and that his formation maintains the first half of the presidency of the European Parliament, which Roberta Metsola would hold again until January 2027.

To conduct negotiations, each political family appoints two negotiators: the Greek Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the polish Donald Tusk for the European People’s Party; the Spanish Pedro Sanchez and the german Olaf Scholz for the Party of European Socialists; and the belgian Alexander de Croo and the Estonian Kaja Kallas for the Alliance of European Liberals and Democrats.

The European social democrats, the second force in last Sunday’s elections, aspire on this occasion to the second most precious position in the distribution: the presidency of the European Council for which the unwritten rule is that the person chosen must have been or be head of State or Government of an EU country. Even Sánchez was in the pools last year, although after achieving the investiture after the July 2023 elections, the option was completely ruled out.

The main name on the table is that of former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, who has a very good relationship with Von der Leyen, Sánchez and Macron despite being hampered by his legal situation; The Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office is investigating him for alleged irregularities in lithium, green hydrogen and a data center businesses, but at the moment it has not presented evidence against him, has not charged him or given further explanations.

The leadership of European diplomacy, now in the hands of the Spanish Josep Borrellit would in principle be for a liberal candidate and the Estonian’s name sounds strongly Kaja Kallasone of the strongest voices in the EU in favor of continuing support for Ukraine and sanction Russia.

In her favor is being the only one on the shortlist from an Eastern country, although her very hard line against the Kremlin can play against you.

Outside of the three large pro-European political families, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, winner of the European elections in her country, expressed her hope that Italy’s role will be “recognised” in the formation of the new leadership of the European Union. and the desire of the voters, mostly leaning towards the right, is understood.