EU Leaders Appoint EPP Ursula von der Leyen as Commission Chair
The European Union member states have agreed to support Ursula von der Leyen as the next chairman of the commission, according to a meeting held in Brussels. The agreement was announced late in the night between Thursday and Friday. Antonio Costa, the former prime minister of Portugal and social democrat, was elected to lead the European Council, which consists of the leaders of the member states. Kaja Kalla, the Prime Minister of Estonia representing Renew parliamentary group, was elected as the EU’s new high representative for foreign and security policy.
The appointment package was agreed on Tuesday by six EU countries including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Dutch Secretary General Mark Rutte. Now most of the leaders of other EU countries have also supported these appointments in advance with some exceptions such as Italy’s far-right prime minister Georgia Meloni who abstained from voting for von der Leyen while voting against Costa and Kalla. Italy is one of the largest EU and euro countries; thus it continues to work towards giving Italy more weight in Europe. Viktor Orbán, Hungarian Prime Minister also voted against von der Leyen but abstained for Kallas who is known for his criticism of Russia.