Negotiators seal EU top job package deal, but still need EU27 approval

4 months ago 18

EU leaders representing the three main political groups agreed on Tuesday (25 June) on the EU top job package that would put incumbent European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen forward for a second term, Euractiv has learnt.

As part of the ‘package deal’, this would also include former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa as president of the European Council and Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the EU’s new foreign policy chief, people involved in the discussions said.

The six lead negotiators of the ‘big three’ — the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and liberal Renew Europe — include French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the prime ministers of Poland, the Netherlands, Greece, and Spain.

“The negotiators of the three political groups (EPP, S&D, Renew) have reached a consensus on a common position in accordance with the [EU] Treaties,” one EU diplomat told Euractiv.

Euractiv understands that the EPP has withdrawn its demands that Costa only served the first 2.5 years at the helm of the European Council. Instead, the current tradition and gentlemen’s agreement, according to which the posting will be renewed, will carry on.

However, Wednesday’s agreement does not constitute a final deal and still needs approval by a weighted majority of the EU’s 27 leaders.

It remains to be seen how the deal will be perceived later this week when EU leaders meet for an EU summit in Brussels on 27-28 June, meant to formally decide on the EU’s next institutional set-up.

The six negotiators of the three main political families in the Parliament attempted to ‘pre-cook’ an agreement before EU27 leaders met for dinner last week and were presented with what some saw as an attempt to reach a fait accompli.

EU diplomats and officials said they expected last week’s tensions – when no agreement was reached at an informal EU summit – to spill over to the next round of negotiations if the talks were led according to the same model.

“If it works – great. But last week they [the negotiators] have tried to do a backroom deal and throw it at the leaders’ table and it did not go too well,” a second EU diplomat said.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has not been involved in the negotiations, despite her political group, the hard-right ECR, now being the third-largest in the European Parliament after June’s EU elections, people familiar with the talks confirmed.

Meloni, leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists in the European Parliament, had previously voiced her anger at the way the EU’s top job package had been negotiated.

She still needs to make her demands known, which she should do in front of the Italian parliament on Wednesday (26 June) for the traditional pre-debate ahead of EU summits, though she has previously said: “Italy needs to be recognised for the role it deserves.”

Meloni was emboldened last week, when her group surpassed that of the Liberals in seat numbers in the European Parliament, giving her an advantage in pushing for her demands.

Meloni’s cabinet, contacted by Euractiv, declined to comment on the developments.

The key issue on the table will be which portfolio will be allocated to Italy in the next European Commission. Meloni is reportedly seeking a significant portfolio for an Italian commissioner as well as a vice-presidency of the Commission.

French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the two Liberal negotiators, has been in contact with his Italian counterpart, Euractiv understands, and EPP negotiators are expected to contact Meloni this afternoon to brief her on the situation.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whom Meloni met in Rome on Monday, said on Tuesday the deal the EPP “made with the leftists and the liberals runs against everything that the EU was based on”.

“Instead of inclusion, it sows the seeds of division. EU top officials should represent every member state, not just leftists and liberals!” he wrote on social media X.

Macron is expected to meet with Orbán on Wednesday (26 June), a day before the summit.

Tuesday’s deal reflects the political majority in the European Parliament, its supporters continue to say, counting on the votes from centre-right, the liberals, and the socialists to re-elect von der Leyen as Commission president.

Backers of the ‘centrist’ coalition are confident that von der Leyen could be voted in by the Parliament with more than 400 votes anyway.

The traditional European Parliament alliance of the S&D, liberal Renew, and EPP currently holds 399 seats in the 720-seat Parliament.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]