The EU Council formally approved the candidates for the three top jobs in the EU that were proposed by the “Ursula majority” faction—a reference to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Italy voted against Kaja Kallas (who was approved as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and Antonio Costa (voted in as EU Council President), and abstained on von der Leyen (EU Commission). Hungary voted against.
While the media speak about Italy “isolating itself,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had no other choice, after she had been excluded from the negotiations upon request by the liberal faction. The fight is now moving to the European Parliament, where on July 18 von der Leyen might need Meloni’s votes, in case the defection rate from her majority is as high as five years ago. Alternatively, von der Leyen might ask the Greens for their votes, but this would create headaches to the centrists.
Kallas received the enthusiastic endorsement of Christoph Heusgen, head of the Munich Security Conference. Heusgen has been for many years security advisor to Angela Merkel, and before that, he was assistant to EU High Representative Javier Solana. Under Solana, Heusgen worked together with former Tony Blair speechwriter Robert Cooper ("The EU Is a Liberal Empire") to draft the EU Security Strategy in 2003. This paper, under the chapter “Building Security in Our Neighborhood,” states: “Our task is to promote a ring of well governed countries to the East of the European Union and to the borders of the Mediterranean with whom we can enjoy close and cooperative relations.”
