Analysis: Well-flagged package of von der Leyen, Kallas and Costa was hammered out by a small group of leaders and sold as a done deal to the rest
EU leaders take hours rather than days to re-elect Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president
After motoring through several other items on the agenda surprisingly quickly, the national leaders turned to the topic of who they would put forward for several key EU jobs at about 9pm on Thursday. von der Leyen was the pick to continue as commission president, as part of a deal where Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas would become the EU’s next foreign affairs chief, and former prime minister of Portugal António Costa would take over as president of the European Council.
The choice of Kallas as the next foreign affairs chief is a recognition of her being a strong voice in support of Ukraine, which is no surprise given the war is on the doorstep of Estonia. There were some queries about the choice of Costa as next president, running EU leaders’ summits. He had to resign as Portuguese prime minister last year as a corruption scandal engulfed his government, but to date he has not been personally implicated.
Speaking on Friday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said the EU would need to “step up” to support the Palestinian Authority, which runs parts of the occupied West Bank. “There is going to be a need for real European leadership shortly on supporting the Palestinian Authority in a financial sense, in a practical sense. We already provide some assistance, there is going to be an urgent need to assist and support and help sustain the authority,” he said.
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