Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa and Kaja Kallas have been tipped to lead the European Union in the next five years.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00EU leaders have finally signed off on who they choose to take the top jobs of the European
00:07Union for the next five years, following a few weeks of tense negotiations. Ursula von
00:12der Leyen has been proposed as President of the European Commission for a second term,
00:16former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa as President of the European Council
00:21and Prime Minister of Estonia Kaya Kallis as the EU's Foreign Policy Chief. Von der
00:26Leyen will now be presented to the European Parliament for voting, where she needs the
00:30support of 361 MEPs to vote in favour of her to be re-elected.
00:35I would plain and simply like to express my gratitude to the leaders who endorsed my nomination
00:45for a second mandate as President of the European Commission. And I'm very honoured and I'm
00:51delighted to share this very special moment, hopefully soon on screen, António Costa but
00:58also my dear friend Kaya Kallis.
01:00However, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed strong dissatisfaction with the
01:05process, saying it didn't fully take into account the rise of hard-right parties like
01:10hers in the European Parliament elections. She abstained in the nomination of von der
01:14Leyen and voted against the nomination of Kaya Kallis and António Costa. There's concern
01:19that her rejection is a sign of turbulent times ahead for the EU.
01:25Indeed, Giorgia Meloni abstained. And I think it is very important to work well in the European
01:32Council with the Prime Minister, with Italy, like with all other member states. So this
01:39is a principle for me which I followed all the time.
01:43The next hurdle for Ursula von der Leyen is the trickiest. The votes in the European Parliament
01:47for her re-election are wafer-thin and nothing is guaranteed. She said she wants to work
01:51with the coalition of the Greens, the Socialists and the Liberals, but she'll likely have to
01:55look further afield to potentially the far-right, led by Giorgia Meloni, which will upset the
02:00coalition. It's a secret ballot and if she loses by even one vote, it appears there is
02:05no plan B. Shona Murray, Euronews, Brussels.