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As an agreement on the distribution of key EU posts was close on Monday evening, the leaders of the European People’s Party demanded that half of the European Council president’s mandate go to them, with the other part going to a socialist. The final decision is expected at the summit on June 27-28.
Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen will have to wait until the next summit, scheduled for June 27 and 28, to be officially confirmed for a second five-year term at the head of the European Commission. If the Twenty-Seven did not reach a formal agreement on Monday evening after their dinner, it is because of the appetite of the Prime Ministers of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) who claimed that the future President of the European Council of Heads of State and Government, who will be the socialist António Costa, former Portuguese Prime Minister, only serves one mandate of two and a half years before giving his place to a conservative, while it is understood that the holder of the position always serves two terms. This desire to rob the socialists derailed the summit.
The agreement was however very close, no one having opposed the names of the future holders of the “top jobs” suggested by the first three political families of the European Parliament: namely Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa and the liberal Kaja Kallas, current Estonian Prime Minister, for the Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
