lhe heads of state and government of the European Union (EU) aspire to find a consensus this Thursday on the renewal of senior community officials, at a summit to which they arrive with a proposal of names of the negotiators from the pro-European political families that include Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa and Kaja Kallas.
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The leaders will meet from 2:00 p.m. at their traditional June summit, which will last until Friday and will have on their agenda, in addition to decisions on institutional positions, debates on the EU’s priorities for the next five years (the so-called “strategic agenda”), the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East or the options for financing defense reinforcement.
The focus of attention will fall, however, on the distribution of senior positions on which leaders must decide; at stake are the presidency of the European Commission, that of the European Council and the position of high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The order of the day’s topics is currently up in the air, with the exception of the meeting that the leaders will have at the beginning of the summit with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the traditional exchange of views with the president of Parliament. European, Roberta Metsola, after which they will get into the matter.
The six negotiators from the three large pro-European families, which include the Spanish Pedro Sánchez, agreed on Tuesday to propose the current president of the Commission, the conservative German Ursula von der Leyen, to repeat in office; to the Portuguese socialist Antonio Costa in the presidency of the European Council and the liberal Estonian Kaja Kallas as head of community diplomacy.
From left to right: Ursula Von der Leyen, António Costa and Kaja Kallas.
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The three names comply with the necessary balance between political families, gender and geography (both by location on the map and by balance between large and small Member States, as well as by seniority as EU partners), but they leave out to countries currently not affiliated with any of these three political families: Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has already made her anger clear with this shortlist and described it as an “agreement to exclude” other political forces.while the Czech Republic seems satisfied with the distribution and sees no reason to block it.
What is desirable for a European source is that the Twenty-seven come as close as possible to unanimity
Although theoretically the agreement would go ahead without these four countries, what is desirable for a European source is that the Twenty-Seven come as close as possible to unanimity; The goal should be, he said, “to reach as many people as possible who are comfortable.”
Another diplomatic source stressed that the resulting agreement must be inclusive and that it cannot give the impression that everything comes “pre-cooked” so that smaller countries or countries outside the three major parties (popular, social democrats and liberals) simply give the green light.
Spain, For its part, it is among the Member States that are most reluctant to necessarily include everyone and He defends that the six negotiators already represent 80% of the population. He therefore advocates trying to “persuade” these four countries that this is the best possible list, but not forcing a consensus that is almost impossible and unnecessary.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (standing) reacts as she briefs the Senate ahead of the EU summit, in Rome, Italy, June 26, 2024.
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According to a source from Moncloa, It will be Von der Leyen’s own responsibility to later build the majority she needs in the European Parliament to be confirmed as president of the European Commission. as it will have to strike a complex balance between that majority support and giving Italy a significant portfolio in the next EU executive.
If an agreement is reached at the summit in the next two days, the future president of the European Council will already have the position secured, while both the candidate for President of the European Commission as a High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy They will have to overcome separate votes in the European Parliament.
Several diplomatic and parliamentary sources trusted that the vote to confirm the president of the community Executive, foreseeably Von der Leyen herself, will be held in the first plenary session of the legislature that begins on July 16.
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