“You should not sell the bear’s skin before hunting it”

BRUSSELS, June 27 () –

The Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, called this Thursday “not to sell the bear skin before hunting it” regarding her chances of being elected High Representative of the European Union within the framework of the leaders’ summit that will confirm the distribution of senior officials.

Speaking at NATO headquarters, where she met Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of a summit of EU leaders, the Baltic leader called for not pre-empting the leaders’ decisions, even though her name is included in the package that generates consensus among political families.

“Surprises happen, so you never know. We have a saying in Estonian that you shouldn’t sell the bear’s skin before you hunt it. So I won’t do that,” he said.

The agreement closed between the ‘popular’, socialist and liberal families places Kallas as successor to Josep Borrell as head of European diplomacy, while Ursula von der Leyen would continue to head the European Commission and the Portuguese socialist Antonio Costa would preside over the Council European.

The grand coalition has negotiated the distribution of senior positions without taking into account the governments of Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which generated evident discomfort, especially in the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, who have threatened to oppose.

From different capitals they insist that this will not prevent sufficient understanding to push the agreement forward, since the distribution needs a reinforced qualified majority to be adopted.