European Union member state leaders on Thursday (June 27) at the summit held in Brussels agreed to nominate Ursula von der Leyen, a German, to continue serving as the President of the European Commission, the EU’s top administrative body, for a five-year term.
The leaders of the 27 countries also nominated former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa to succeed Charles Michel as the President of the European Council and nominated Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas to be in charge of EU foreign policy.
The current President of the European Council, Michel, announced these three appointments on the social media platform X on the same day.
Last Monday (June 17), the European Union held an informal summit in Brussels, which failed to reach a consensus on supporting von der Leyen for a second term as the President of the European Commission.
The three nominations received widespread support from leaders of various countries, but Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni abstained from voting for von der Leyen and cast opposing votes for Costa and Kallas.
EU leaders praised von der Leyen for her handling of the once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic and the largest war on European soil since 1945. Her party, the European People’s Party (EPP), emerged victorious in the vote earlier this month, maintaining its position as the largest party in the European Parliament.
Von der Leyen’s reappointment is not yet set in stone. She must win the majority of the more than 700 Members of the European Parliament in a not-so-secret vote expected to take place next month.
In 2019, von der Leyen became the first female President of the European Commission in the EU’s 62-year history, but only secured the support of European Parliament members by a narrow margin.
Von der Leyen posted on social media platform X, saying, “Thank you to all the leaders for supporting my re-nomination. Now, I will seek the confirmation of the European Parliament after submitting my political guidelines.”
The 65-year-old von der Leyen was elected a member of the Bundestag in the 2009 German federal parliamentary elections and has held positions such as German Federal Minister of Defense, Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, and Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs.