EU Commission President: Almost there: Von der Leyen nominated for second term

Ursula von der Leyen has cleared an important hurdle for another term as President of the European Commission. The heads of state and government of the 27 EU states voted by a large majority at the EU summit in Brussels to approve the personnel proposals of the major European party families. “I am grateful to the heads of state and government for supporting my nomination for a second term,” said the CDU politician and former federal minister on Friday night.

In addition, the summit adopted a strategic agenda with the goals for the EU for the coming years and decided to put Georgia’s EU accession process on hold for the time being because of the government’s course there.

What’s next for von der Leyen

Before von der Leyen can begin her second term in office, she must now gain the support of a majority in the European Parliament. The vote in Strasbourg could take place as early as mid-July. Von der Leyen announced on Friday night that she wanted to talk to various parties and groups in the coming weeks. It is important to her that they are pro-European, pro-Ukrainian and pro-rule of law.

In any case, the CDU politician is supported by an informal alliance with the centre-right EPP alliance, the Social Democrats and the Liberals, which theoretically has a comfortable majority of around 400 of the 720 votes. However, it is considered possible that a number of German MPs will refuse to vote in the secret ballot. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was nevertheless confident that von der Leyen would be elected. “The President does have a very good reputation in Parliament,” said the SPD politician after the meeting.

Von der Leyen has been Commission President since 2019 and is therefore the boss of around 32,000 employees who, among other things, make proposals for new EU laws and monitor compliance with the European treaties. In addition, the politician from Lower Saxony sits at the table as an EU representative at almost all major international summits such as the G7 or G20.

The new EU top trio

In the European Council, the allocation of the top posts was already as good as certain before the summit began thanks to an agreement between the major European party families. The next Council President will be the former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa. The Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is slated to be the EU’s foreign policy chief.

For years, Costa was considered the European model socialist. He is the son of a well-known writer from Goa, India, and as head of a minority government he managed a balancing act that was considered impossible shortly after the euro crisis: he loosened the austerity measures and increased social spending and public investment, but at the same time he managed to consolidate public finances.

When the 62-year-old lawyer resigned as Prime Minister of Portugal last November in the wake of a corruption scandal, his political career seemed to be over. However, the investigators had done a poor job, and it is now said that Costa and other suspects were not guilty of any wrongdoing.

Kallas has been the first woman in Estonia’s history to head the government since 2021 – and is considered an advocate of a resolute stance by the West towards Moscow. With her clear stance and unwavering support for Kyiv, the 47-year-old has made a name for herself internationally – she has already been dubbed “Europe’s new Iron Lady”.

The lawyer has politics in her blood: her father Siim Kallas was previously Estonia’s Prime Minister and an EU Commissioner for many years. She herself spent four years in Brussels – as a member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2018. The liberal was also considered as a possible new NATO Secretary General. However, there were concerns that she might focus exclusively on Russia and the Ukraine war in the future.

Irritated mood before the nomination

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, meanwhile, was angry about the nomination process. She criticized the fact that she was not directly involved in the talks about the personnel package despite the good result of her party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) in the European elections. The process was wrong in its method and content, the right-wing politician wrote on X after the summit. Out of respect for the citizens, she could not support this procedure.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also railed against this. At the summit, several heads of government tried to calm the waters and explained that the aim was not to exclude anyone.

However, the consent of the two countries was not required, as unanimity was not necessary. Only at least 20 EU states had to agree, representing at least 65 percent of the EU population. Scholz defended the agreement between the major party families: The European Council had to make a proposal that could also find a majority in Parliament.

What the EU plans to do in the next five years

In addition to the personnel issues, the summit decided on a new strategic agenda that the EU should become more independent in military matters and strengthen its arms industry. In order to be able to protect the EU effectively against threats from countries such as China or Russia, the European Commission estimates that additional investments of around 500 billion euros will be needed over the next decade.

Germany and France actually wanted to make several changes to the text, but were unable to get their way. Scholz criticized the agenda as not being ambitious enough. Germany could have imagined more on the topics of competitiveness and climate protection, among others. The Chancellor stressed that he did not accept joint debt to finance armaments and the refinancing of national defense budgets from the European Union budget.