The heads of state and government of the EU member states concluded their summit in Brussels late on Thursday with an agreement on the top jobs in the European institutions for the next institutional cycle.

They nominated former President Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission, former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa as President of the European Council for a term of two and a half years and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The President of the European Commission must be confirmed by the European Parliament with a majority of at least 361 of the 720 MEPs. The European Parliament will vote on the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy when it decides on the composition of the new Commission. The appointment of the President of the European Council is the exclusive competence of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States and the Parliament has no powers in this regard.

Plenkovic believes that von der Leyen will receive the necessary majority

Twenty-five leaders voted in favour of the proposed candidates, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni voted against Costa and Kallas and abstained from the vote on von der Leyen. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban voted against von der Leyen and abstained on Kallas, while he voted in favour of Costa.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he believed that Ursula von der Leyen would receive the necessary majority in the European Parliament, which could vote on her as early as its first plenary session in mid-July. Once the President has been confirmed, the process of putting together the Commission will begin (Commissioners must pass hearings in Parliament) and finally Parliament will vote on the entire Commission.

“If we add up the MEPs from the European People’s Party, the Socialists and the Liberals, there are more than enough votes for her appointment, even if some of them do not vote in favour of the proposed candidate. I think there are reservations and there will probably be MEPs who are not from these three political groups who will vote in her favour,” Plenkovic said after the summit, which ended unexpectedly early. Normally the meetings last two days, but this time everything was done in one day.

The EU heads of state and government also adopted the strategic agenda, the work programme for the next five years.

A special guest at the beginning of the summit was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom the European Union signed several agreements on security issues.