EU | The EU leaders accepted their candidates as the future leaders of the Union

of the EU on Thursday, the summit meeting of the leaders of the member states reached an agreement on who the member states will propose for the most important leadership positions in the Union.

The EU leaders want to be the president of the Commission Ursula von der Leyenas the EU’s “foreign minister”, i.e. high representative Kaja Kallasen and President of the European Council António Costa.

The appointment package was primed at the dinner of the heads of state on June 17, and was then negotiated between the three political groups in the parliament, the EPP of the European People’s Party, the Social Democrats and the center-liberal Renew group.

The names were negotiated by the Prime Minister of Poland on behalf of the EPP Donald Tusk and the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The Dems were represented by the Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz and the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez. The negotiators of the Renew group were the French president Emmanuel Macron and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte.

With this background, the member countries ended up with the three names in question. Two of them still need approval from the EU Parliament, the support of the member states alone is not enough.

“Queen of Europe” gets a new season

German Ursula von der Leyen, 65, will start a second term as Commission president if the majority of the European Parliament supports her election.

Support is not a given. Five years ago, von der Leyen was elected to his position with a majority of only nine votes in the parliament. If everything goes as planned, this time the vote on him could already be in the July session of the parliament.

Von der Leyen’s party is the European People’s Party EPP. He himself was not a candidate in the EU elections, although he participated in the election campaigns.

Von der Leyen has garnered praise after leading the EU through the corona crisis and rallying the EU’s ranks after the start of Russia’s war of aggression.

He is an efficient and practical leader who lives in his workplace at the EU headquarters in Berlaymont. There has been criticism from within the commission that he trusts his closest assistants more than other commissioners.

The commission, which makes the EU’s legislative proposals, has used its power to the maximum this season, because the EU leaders have given it space.

During Von der Leyen’s term, the commission passed a lot of climate legislation, among other things, which has not only aroused admiration in the member states. There are fears on the left wing of the EU Parliament and some of the middle groups that in the coming term von der Leyen will too much sympathize with the wishes of the far right and will not, for example, promote actions against climate change as enthusiastically as before.

Five years ago, von der Leye was taken to the head of the commission as a surprise name with the agreement of the major member states. He has previously served as a minister in German governments, including as Minister of Defense.

HS posted about him an extensive personal image before the EU elections in June.

The “political animal” who resigned due to the corruption scandal

of the EU the leaders of the member countries decided that former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, 62, will chair their summits in the future.

Costa will therefore become the permanent president of the European Council, the joint representative of the member states at the top of the EU.

Representing the Socialist Party, Costa was Prime Minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2023. He was forced to resign last November due to the bribery scandal that rocked Portugal, although Costa himself does not appear to have been involved in bribery.

Instead, the prime minister’s close circle have been suspected, including his chief of staff. According to Costa, the mere suspicions cast a shadow on the Prime Minister institution, which is why he felt compelled to resign.

The bribery suspicions are related to the large green transition and mining industry projects underway in Portugal.

Costa is seen as conciliatory and seeking consensus. Costa, who has been active in politics all his life, is characterized as a “political animal”.

Costa has a good relationship with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which would be a change from the current situation. Current President of the EU Council Charles Michel and von der Leye barely tolerate each other.

Costa is said to speak English poorly, but French is better.

Estonia’s tough face survived the resignation demands

The current Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, 47, will become the Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy if he gets the approval of the EU Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. This season, the task has been handled by a Spaniard Josep Borrell.

The appointment means that Kallas leads the EU’s foreign policy. Among other things, he leads the speech at the meeting of EU foreign ministers, who meet frequently, and makes sure that the Union’s foreign relations are consistent. In that he is assisted by the EU’s External Relations Administration. The High Representative is also one of the vice-presidents of the EU Commission.

In Estonia, Kallas belongs to the reform party, which sits in the center-liberal Renew group of the EU Parliament.

He is a second generation politician: father Siim Kallas is one of the founders of the reform party. Siim Kallas served, among other things, as Prime Minister of Estonia and later as the country’s first EU Commissioner.

Kaja Kallas, who has served as prime minister since 2021, is a controversial figure in Estonia’s domestic politics, but in the EU he enjoys wide respect. Kallas talks about Russia directly and without bowing to images, which has been in demand in the time after the war of aggression against Russia. He has had ideas and initiatives to support Ukraine, and because of his direct communication style, he is also listened to.

Last year, Kallas became the center of an uproar in Estonia, when it turned out that a transport company partly owned by her husband continued to operate in Russia even after the start of the war of aggression. The spouse later sold his ownership and Kallas survived the divorce claims.