Estonia | Kallas dodged questions about EU tasks by referring to speculation about NATO’s general secretariat: “We know how it went”

Estonian of the prime minister Kaja Kallasen According to However, Kallas avoids, at least for now, questions about whether he himself is willing to step into one of the key positions after the EU elections in June.

“It is of course an honor that my name has even been mentioned in speculations, but these matters have not been decided yet,” Kallas said at the Lennart Meri conference in Tallinn on Thursday evening.

Kallas reminded that his name had also been put forward as NATO’s next Secretary General and that “we know how it went”. The Dutch Prime Minister will almost certainly be chosen to lead the defense alliance at the Washington summit in July Mark Rutte.

Former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves wondered why Russia’s border neighborhood seems to be a problem in the case of Kallas and Estonia, when a Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg has led NATO for a record-breaking almost ten years.

Among other things, Kallas has been arranged for the posts of high representative for foreign policy or the new defense commissioner that will become vacant after the EU elections. It is estimated that Kallas wants to leave Estonian politics. In Estonia, his personal popularity and the popularity of the reform party he leads are calculated clearly after last year’s election.

Estonian Broadcasting Corporation (ERR), according to the government agreement, the Estonian commissioner seat belongs to Kallas’ reform party.

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The former president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, wondered why the border neighborhood seems to be a problem in the case of Kallas, when the Norwegian Stoltenberg has led NATO for almost ten years.

Kallas will be involved in negotiations as the prime minister of a member country when the top EU posts are decided after the elections. In the Lennart Meri conference panel, he said that many more experienced colleagues in the EU “know how to play this game much better”.

“[EU:n] the focus is still on France and Germany, that has not changed,” Kallas said.

The vice president of the EU Commission who participated in the discussion in Tallinn Vera Jourova according to him, it would be important for the Commission’s leading positions to have strong representatives of the countries of Eastern Central Europe who understand the Russian mentality and know how to assess what can possibly be expected in the future. The Czech Jourova herself is leaving EU politics after the elections.

A workshop of ideas CEO of the German Marshall Fund East by Michal Baranowski according to Europe’s military and security policy focus has shifted to the east, which should be seen not only in words but also in actions and leadership. That is why, according to him, it is interesting to follow who is given the positions of the EU’s key players.

The Polish Baranowski brought up the Irish general as an example in the panel By Sean Clancy the election to head the EU military committee earlier this week, even though a general from Poland had also been nominated.

“I have absolutely nothing against Ireland, but it is a neutral country that spends less than a quarter of its GDP on defense.”

NATO country Poland’s share of defense expenditure in GDP getting closer already four percent.

The choice of an Irish general to lead the military committee was consistent in that his predecessor in the military committee was from outside NATO, Austria.