European Union (EU) leaders negotiating the bloc’s top jobs have agreed to nominate Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president, sources involved in the talks said on Tuesday.
As part of the deal, negotiators also agreed that former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa is to be the next European Council president.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is to be the European Union’s new foreign policy chief.
The agreement came ahead of the summit of EU leaders on June 20 to 21 in Brussels to decide on who would lead the European Union’s institutions for the next five years.
To be nominated, von der Leyen needed the support of a “reinforced qualified majority’’ of EU leaders, representing at least 20 countries and 65 per cent of the European Union’s population.
A total of 13 EU leaders in political parties affiliated to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), boosting her chances after a strong EPP result in the European Parliament elections.
After her nomination by EU leaders, von der Leyen needs to be approved by a majority in the European Parliament in the coming weeks.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis negotiated on behalf of the EPP for von der Leyen, a centre-right German Christian Democrat and EPP member.
French President Emmanuael Macron and outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte negotiated on behalf of the liberals and Kallas.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez represented Costa in the talks for the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group.
The EPP, aiming to capitalise on their advantage, pushed to break the convention of two consecutive two-and-a-half-year terms for the role of European Council president.
For this reason Costa’s second term in the role was not guaranteed.
Talks in Brussels last week broke up among EU leaders without a decision on a second term for von der Leyen.
The political backing for von der Leyen was expected to end months of speculation over whom EU leaders might nominate for the bloc’s top job following the recent European Parliament elections.
The commission president is in charge of the EU’s powerful executive arm, charged with developing new EU policies, enforcing existing EU laws and representing the bloc at important international summits like the G7.
