EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is pushing for a policy of risk reduction towards China.
Friedrich Florin | Afp | Getty Images
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — European diplomats have already begun key negotiations over who will take key posts in the European Union after elections next month.
From June 6th to 9th, voters across the 27 EU member states will meet to elect the next MEPs in the European Parliament. The top positions in the EU that are not directly elected will then be awarded in the following weeks. They influence key policy-making and Brussels ultimately impacts the livelihoods of 450 million people across the region.
Diplomats within the EU are already trying to figure out who will lead the three major institutions in the coming years: the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.
Three senior officials, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks, told CNBC the most likely scenario is that Ursula von der Leyen, the current president of the European Commission, which is the EU’s executive arm, stays in the job.
Von der Leyen was already catapulted to the forefront of European politics in 2019 when French President Emmanuel Macron threw her name into the ring to resolve an impasse over an overall package for “top jobs” that also included Christine Lagarde as the new president of the European Union Central bank belonged.
“Von der Leyen has great support from European leaders,” one of the three sources told CNBC by phone.
However, the same source added that Macron, the mastermind of the previous round of negotiations, had not yet expressed his support for another mandate from Von der Leyen, and the source suggested that he would reserve some room for maneuver if the official talks continue afterwards begin election.
In fact, Bloomberg has reported that Macron has floated the idea of letting former ECB President Mario Draghi return to EU politics and lead the Commission.
A senior EU diplomat told CNBC that Macron was using the silence to put pressure on Von der Leyen. The third source said Draghi was unlikely to take the job but agreed it was a way to put pressure on Von der Leyen. CNBC has reached out to the Elysee Palace but was not immediately available for comment.
Current opinion polls suggest that von der Leyen’s party, the conservative European People’s Party in the EU Parliament, is likely to win the EU-wide elections. However, she may have to make some compromises with far-right politicians as they prepare for an increase in the number of seats within the parliamentary chamber.
The three sources also told CNBC that if Von der Leyen remains president of the European Commission, it is expected that a member of the European socialist grouping will lead the European Council, the institution that brings together heads of state from around the EU. States.
Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen are the two names currently being discussed in Brussels.
In typical Brussels fashion of dividing the top positions among the parties with the most votes, this election would leave the role of High Representative, the EU’s top diplomat in charge of foreign relations, to the liberal group Renew. The most likely candidate here is Kaja Kallas, the Estonian Prime Minister.
With only a month left until voters go to the polls, discussions about the distribution of the next top posts are intensifying. However, the final decision will only be made once the results are available.
Regardless of who leads the EU, policymaking in Brussels over the next five years is likely to focus much more on defense and how to reduce certain dependencies on China and, to some extent, the US
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2024-05-09 05:10:22
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