The 27 will meet again in ten days at a formal summit, at which a decision is expected to be made. Von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas are the only names eligible to lead the Commission, the Council and Diplomacy, although the popular names ask for more weight in the Council, with half a mandate for them.
The informal summit of heads of state and government of the European Union (EU) to negotiate the renewal of the EU leadership concluded tonight without agreement about the names occupying the four institutional positions at stake.
The leaders of the 27 will try again at their now formal summit, scheduled for next week (June 27 and 28).
Although next Monday’s meeting was planned as a first exchange of views on the negotiations, with the support of a majority of leaders, several names came to the table: the German Ursula von der Leyen for the European Commission, Portuguese Antonio Costa for the European Council and Estonia Kaya Kallas as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Moreover, and despite the fact that EU leaders do not elect the President of the European Parliament, they were expected to indicate that he would preferably be a representative of the European People’s Party, paving the way for the re-election of the Maltese government. Roberta Metsola at the head of this institution.
The President of the European Council, Belgian Charles Michel, said the dinner had been “a good opportunity to exchange views” on the outcome of the elections and to prepare for the formal summit next week, at which leaders they must reach agreement on institutional renewal.
Leaving the meeting, the acting Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, assured that “everything is much clearer” than in 2019, at the last institutional renewal, when “everything was up in the air for three days.”
The EPP calls for the European Council to be divided into two mandates
The European People’s Party (EPP) has formally proposed a change to the traditional position structure: that the presidency of the European Council, which the Social Democrats fully aspire to, be divided into two terms of two and a half years, so that they stick to a theirs. It is the same format followed in the Presidency of the European Parliament. The proposal is not accepted.
Although Von der Leyen and Metsola appear to be the most stable sector of the ‘pool’, there are more doubts about Costa – who is being questioned by the popular Italians, part of the governing coalition in Rome, for not supporting Ukraine sufficiently – and at Kallas, whose European governments closest to the Kremlin, such as Slovakia and Hungary, are reluctant.
However, if one of the names fails, the entire group can decline, because a certain balance between gender, geographical origin and political color must be respected.
Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
