The big “bargain” at the leaders' dinner – Crucial day for top EU officials
While the discussions about the EU's highest offices have been going on for months in the foreground and mostly in the background, today's informal summit of EU leaders is considered extremely crucial, as it will culminate the “big bargain' for the top positions, but for which commissioner positions will each country 'win'.
The issue of the presidency of the European Commission should be considered resolved, as the unwritten rule wants the political group that comes first in the European elections to claim the presidency of the Commission.
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The EPP remains the party with the most members in the European Council and after its clear victory in the European elections, its candidate, the 65-year-old German Ursula von der Leyen, seems to be in a very good starting position for a second term in the Presidency of the Commission, if and in the last period of time they saw the light of public information talking about undermining by Charles Michel. Even if this is true it does not seem to affect von der Leyen's election to the top institutional position. At the same time, the scenario of the Greek prime minister's transition to the highest European office following Charles Michel's proposal was active for several days, but this was denied by Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself.
European People's Party, Social Democrats and Liberals have made the post-election “fund” and now know with what power the EU's top offices are negotiating. The largest country under the leadership of the EPP is Poland; it belongs to its prime minister, Donald Tusk, together with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to defend the candidacy of Mrs. von der Leyen. On the side of the Social Democrats, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have received a mandate to negotiate, who support the candidacy of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa for the position of President of the European Council.
Commission President von der Leyen will take part in the first meeting of the Summit, which will discuss the priorities of the next legislative period, but will then have to leave the room to allow heads of state and government to discuss the top EU officials.
Close to a consensual solution
Diplomatic sources estimate that European leaders are close to a consensus on the persons who will take over.
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These persons are, of course, Ursula von der Leyen, the former Prime Minister of Portugal Costa, the Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kalas (for the post of High Representative of the EU) and Roberta Metzola from Malta for a second term in the presidency of the European Parliament. It is therefore possible that there will already be a first political agreement today, which will then be formalized at the European Council on 27 and 28 June.
Based on the EU Treaty, the future president of the Commission must have the support of the European Council with a qualified majority (including 55% of the countries and 65% of the population) and then the European Parliament is asked to approve it by secret ballot.
For the approval of the new President of the Commission by the new European Parliament, a simple majority is required, i.e. 361 votes from the total of 720 MEPs.
Based on the result of the European elections of 9 June, the three political groups forming an informal coalition in the European Parliament are the European People's Party (189 seats), the Socialists and Democrats (135 seats) and the Center-Liberals (79 seats). They have a total of 403 out of 720 seats, i.e. a comfortable majority, well above the threshold of 361 votes.
