Von der Leyen to be nominated for the presidency of the European Committee for the second time

It seems possible that Ursula von der Leyen will be nominated for the presidency of the European Committee for the second time, in accordance with the agreement reached between the EU leaders of the three pro-European political groups and determining the highest level missions of the bloc.

According to the agreement made by the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), Socialists and Liberals, von der Leyen will be nominated for a second five-year term at the head of the EU executive at the summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Incumbent Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas will become the EU’s chief diplomat, and former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa will assume the presidency of the EU Board, responsible for chairing EU leaders’ summits.

The agreement was signed yesterday by six EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German President Olaf Scholz. While Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis represented the EPP, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez joined Scholz on behalf of the Socialists, and the outgoing Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, spoke with Macron on behalf of the centrist Renew group.

In total, the group received 55 percent of the votes in the European Parliament elections and had 399 of the seats.

According to the statement made by the Spanish government, six people accepted the ranking in a video call yesterday. After hearing the news, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reacted angrily:

“The EPP’s pact with leftists and liberals goes against everything the EU stands for. It sows division instead of inclusiveness. EU top officials must represent all member states, not just leftists and liberals.”

Orbán’s far-right party, Fidesz, has been sitting alone in the European Parliament since leaving the EPP in 2021 due to declining democratic standards in Hungary.

Although Orbán has long signaled that he will vote against von der Leyen, he does not have the authority to veto von der Leyen’s candidacy.

The decision is also likely to disappoint Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who looked visibly timid at last week’s dinner meeting where EU presidents gathered to discuss high-level missions.

Meloni’s nationalist cluster of European Conservatives and Reformists has surpassed Macron’s liberals to become the third largest cluster in the European Parliament, but this has not yet translated into greater influence.

But diplomats suspect Meloni is pushing for Italy to have a top economic portfolio in von der Leyen’s new board, rather than one of the three posts under consideration this week.

The German centre-right politician Von der Leyen, the Portuguese socialist Costa and the Estonian liberal Kallas, selected for the mentioned posts, are considered suitable names to ensure political, geographical and gender stability.

Hibya News Agency