European Commission President and EPP lead candidate standing for re-election, Ursula von der Leyen greets delegates before giving a speech at the congress of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at the Estrel Berlin Hotel in Berlin, on May 8, 2024.
John Macdougall | Afp | Getty Images
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to remain in her post for a second five-year term under a deal struck Tuesday by EU leaders from the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and the Liberals, the sources told CNBC.
Under the same agreement, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is slated to become the bloc’s chief diplomat, while former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa will assume the presidency of the European Council, the institution that brings together the heads of state from across the EU.
The commission president is in charge of the EU executive arm and holds responsibility over regulating the world’s single market, proposing new legislation, and directing the bloc’s policy agenda over the next five years.
The council president, meanwhile, decides the EU’s overall direction and political priorities. The bloc’s chief diplomat deals with foreign policy and international relations.
“There’s an understanding between the three main parties,” one of the three EU officials told CNBC.
The trio of von der Leyen, Kallas, and Costa was agreed by six EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to the sources. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Poland’s Donald Tusk agreed on behalf of the EPP, while Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez backed Scholz for the Socialists, and departing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte joined Macron on behalf of Renew.
The appointments meet EU requirements for geographical balance and are set to be formally approved by the bloc’s current heads of state during a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. They will then be voted on by the European Parliament at a later date.
Some leaders are expected to express their disapproval at the way in which the negotiations have been held.
“The deal that the EPP made with the leftists and the liberals runs against everything that the EU was based on,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday in a post on social media platform X. His country is set to assume the rotating presidency of the European Council next month.
“Instead of inclusion, it sows the seeds of division. EU top officials should represent every member state, not just leftists and liberals!” he added.
Fellow right-winger Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has similarly decried her European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party’s lack of involvement in the talks given their gains in this month’s European Parliament elections.
“I don’t think citizens’ votes in EU elections are currently being considered in negotiations for EU top jobs,” Meloni said Wednesday, according to Reuters.
While Von der Leyen’s EPP came out on top, winning 189 seats in the 720-strong assembly, her centrist allies lost traction amid record gains from the right, including Meloni’s ECR.
A separate EU official, who could also only speak anonymously because of the sensitivity of discussions, told CNBC last week that Meloni “seems to feel that as one of the election’s winners, she should be in the main mix and she isn’t.”
One of the three CNBC sources, who are aware of the negotiations, said Tuesday that the Italian prime minister “wants to be constructive,” in a suggestion that Meloni will also approve the three appointments.
Italy’s agreement could leave it in a better position to push for a strong portfolio at the European Commission. Von der Leyen will choose her new team in the weeks after her post is confirmed, and Meloni may be able to push for a role in, for instance, industrial strategy, economics or competition.
The new European commission is due to start in November, while the new European Council presidency is set to take office on Dec. 1.