The six EU leaders negotiating the top EU positions have agreed that Ursula von der Leyen should return as president of the European Commission (EC), according to media reports.
The same leaders have also picked former Portuguese prime minister António Costa to head the European Council and Estonian PM Kaja Kallas for the foreign affairs brief on the EC, according to EuroNews.
The decision will not become official until later this week, when all 27 EU leaders meet at a summit.
The news was first reported by German news agency DPA.
Six leaders
The negotiators are all leaders of European nations and include Polish PM Donald Tusk, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and French president Emmanuel Macron.
They also all come from the three major European parliamentary parties which backed von der Leyen’s first election as EC president in 2020: the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and the liberal Renew Europe.
However, Renew have fallen into fourth place after this month’s European elections, overtaken by the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). ECR leader, Giorgia Meloni, had previously complained about being excluded from the process.
Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, who had joined in Meloni’s complaints, slammed the decision on Twitter:
“The deal that the EPP made with the leftists and the liberals runs against everything that the EU was based on. Instead of inclusion, it sows the seeds of division.
“EU top officials should represent every member state, not just leftists and liberals!”
Other roles within the EC have reportedly not been agreed to. Although Meloni was not consulted on the trio of positions, Italy is likely to receive an important commission role in the next mandate.
A diplomatic source told Politico:
“Now that they agree, this [should sail] through the European Council easily.”
The FT reports that Meloni and Macron are competing with each other to fill the important slot of vice-president for economic affairs, which would include trade.
‘Majority rules’
The decision to fill all three positions still requires European Council approval.
The council uses a ‘qualified majority’ voting system. At least 55% of member states representing 65% of the total EU population would have to vote in favour. In practice, this means approval is required from at least 15 of the 27 member countries.
The opposition of Meloni and Orban could complicated things, particularly since Italy is one of the most populous countries in Europe.
Another complication is that Costa resigned as Portuguese PM last year over a corruption probe. He has not been formally charged and denies any wrongdoing.
Parliamentary moves
Both Kallas and von der Leyen would also need to be approved by the EU Parliament.
In her first election, von der Leyen relied on the ‘grand coalition’ of EPP, S&D and Renew to secure a narrow majority, only winning by seven votes.
Based on the results of the European elections, this same coalition would be sufficient for the German politician to win re-election as EC president, assuming there are no defections.
However, the three-party grouping has lost seats in the parliament since von der Leyen’s first election, meaning that the incumbent will likely be seeking additional support to guarantee her return to the top European job.
[The image was sourced from the EC website and is licensed under Creative Commons v4.0]