The leaders of the countries of the European Union, meeting at a summit in Brussels, sealed this Thursday an agreement on the conduct of Ursula von der Leyen for a new term as President of the European Commission.
The agreement adopted by the summit also named the former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa new President of the European Council, and supported the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, to conduct the bloc’s diplomacy.
The three leaders had been the subject of a political agreement sealed by representatives of the right, the social democrats and the liberals, in an understanding that excluded the extreme right.
In the conclusions of the summit, the leaders indicated that they “adopted the decision to propose Ursula von der Leyen to the European Parliament, as a candidate for president of the European Commission.”
They also noted that Kallas is “the appropriate candidate for High Representative,” the formal name of the person responsible for the bloc’s diplomacy.
Meanwhile, the document indicates that the Summit “elected Antonio Costa as President of the European Council” and called on the current president to collaborate with the transition.
Costa, 62, will replace the Belgian Charles Michel in the Council, while the names of Von der Leyen and Kallas will still be put to a vote in the European Parliament.
“It is with an enormous sense of mission that I will assume the responsibility of being the next president of the European Council,” Costa said in a message on the X network.
Kallas, for her part, said she felt “honoured” by the support of European leaders. “It is an enormous responsibility in times of geopolitical tensions,” he added.
“My goal will be to work towards achieving EU unity, protecting EU interests and values in a challenging geopolitical context, and building global partnerships,” he explained.
The political agreement sealed on Tuesday practically eliminated any surprise, but leaders of the extreme right, such as the Italian Georgia Meloni and Hungarian Viktor Orbandid not hide their indignation.
That agreement distributed power between the three largest political families in the European Parliament.
Thus, the bloc of the European People’s Party (EPP, right) closed ranks with Von der Leyen; Costa represents the social democrats, and Kallas the liberal group.
For this reason, Orban stated upon arriving at the summit headquarters that The agreement that excluded the extreme right was “shameful,” and that European voters had been “scammed”.
Meanwhile, Meloni had harshly criticized what he considered an agreement of the “oligarchy” to exclude the extreme right.
In the recent European elections, Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party won so overwhelmingly that she became an unavoidable interlocutor within the bloc.
For this reason, the head of the Polish government, Donald Tusk, He sought to bring positions closer together, stating that “there is no Europe without Italy, nor a decision without Prime Minister Meloni.”
Meanwhile, the head of government of Australia, the conservative Karl Nehammer, applauded Meloni’s “many good initiatives for the European Union and for security on our external borders.”
In addition to addressing the distribution of positions, the EU leaders signed with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyan agreement on the EU’s “security commitments” to Ukraine, which has been facing a Russian military invasion for more than two years.
(With information from EFE)
