European Union leaders have agreed to support Ursula von der Leyen for the next term as chairman of the commission. The agreement was announced late in the night between Thursday and Friday, with Antonio Costa elected as president of the European Council and Kaja Kalla chosen as the EU’s new high representative for foreign and security policy.
The appointment package was agreed upon by leaders of six EU countries, including Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Tusk, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Pedro Sanchez, and Mark Rutte. However, Italy’s far-right prime minister Georgia Meloni abstained from voting for von der Leyen while Hungary’s Viktor Orbán voted against her.
Von der Leyen needs a parliamentary majority to support him and may face difficulties because his party survived a 2019 parliamentary vote with a slim margin of only nine votes. He can get 399 votes from his own group and other liberal groups but will need to court the support of other political parties or factions to achieve a majority. The vote on von der Leyen may be held as early as July 18. If he does not receive the necessary support from the European Parliament, EU leaders will have a month to choose a new candidate and start the process again.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s Costa will begin his term as president of the European Council on December 1st after Charles Michel steps down at the end of November. The meeting continues on Friday with discussions on defense against Russia and agreement on EU’s strategic priorities for the next five years also being signed between Ukraine and EU countries during this meeting.
