The sudden postponement of the informal green light for the candidacy of Ursula von der Leyen at the informal meeting of the EU members’ heads of state on Monday became a small sensation. Acting head of the European Council Charles Michel said on Tuesday there were yet no “agreements” on the candidacies of the EU’s top institutions.
Politico quoted an unnamed European diplomat as saying that “leaders will continue discussions at a later date, presumably at their next meeting on June 27-28.” This is the date of the next formal summit of the European Council – the meeting of those same heads of member states who on Monday failed to endorse von der Leyen’s candidacy formally.
After the approval by the European Council, von der Leyen's candidacy will need to be approved by at least 361 votes out of 720 at a session of the newly elected European Parliament in July. This is expected to be a formal procedure due to the overwhelming influence which European ruling elites - represented by the European Council - have inside the Parliament.
The president of the European Commission has proven to be a crucial post as the body represents the executive branch of power in the EU, and at the same time has the right of legislative initiative in the European Parliament.
Von der Leyen's reappointment, which is still expected next week per Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, does not bode well for any peace settlement in Ukraine. During her initial term as the EC’s president, von der Leyen became known as a strong supporter of Kiev regime.
VDL helped supply Ukraine with deadly weapons at the expense of the European Peace Fund that helped her to reimburse individual countries for the shipments of landmines, tanks, artillery and munitions.
After numerous visits to Kiev, the Belgium-born politician “invited” Ukraine to the European Union without setting a clear date for membership, but already announcing the “integration” of Ukraine’s arms industry into the EU military industrial complex.
VDL severed all ties of the European Сomission to Russia, coming up with a suggestion of spending the dividends from frozen Russian assets in Europe on purchases of arms and munitions for Ukraine.
The other candidates whose names likely popped up at the informal meeting of the European Council’s members on Monday evening, according to Politico, were Portugal’s former premier António Costa as European Council president, Malta’s Roberta Metsola as the European Parliament's chairwoman and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas as the new EU foreign policy chief.
Tusk confirmed on Tuesday that Costa and Kallas “will most likely take these high positions in the structures of the European Union.”
Costa hit the headlines last November following a scandal that broke out under his premiership over corrupt practices around the Montalegre lithium mine in Portugal. At the time, allegations surfaced of a private company illegally obtaining a license to mine lithium. Although a probe did not return criminal charges against Costa, his reputation took a hit.
Metsola, who presently serves as the president of the European Parliament, failed to reveal on time that her trip to Davos in 2022 was funded by Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, a son-in-law of the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
However, the greatest concerns have been raised regarding the candidacy of Estonia’s premier, Kaja Kallas, who Tusk tipped for the position of the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Kallas was designated by the Russian Foreign Ministry as “a politician hostile to Russia, its culture and history” for discrimination against her country’s Russian-speaking population.
After almost 200 Soviet monuments were destroyed in Estonia, Russia’s prosecutor’s office added Kallas to the wanted list on charges of desecrating the memory of Soviet soldiers who liberated Estonia from its occupation by Nazi Germany.
The process of choosing EU officials has been frequently criticized as not democratic enough. The German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation notes "the EU's present shape results from the dominance of powerful actors," and that "popular participation is not always provided for in this framework." Thus, despite the strong showing of the oppositional parties advocating dialogue with Russia at the European Parliament vote, the ongoing anti-Russian foreign policy would likely continue.