The new legislative period begins today with the first regular EU summit since the European elections. The 27 heads of state and government want to adopt a personnel package for the three top jobs in Brussels and a strategic agenda with the political priorities for the next five years.
However, this is proving more difficult than expected. On Wednesday, Council President Charles Michel was not yet able to present a finalized summit agenda. This is partly due to a special guest – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not want to reveal when he would be speaking for security reasons.
However, it is also due to the personnel package that Chancellor Olaf Scholz and five other EU leaders have put together on behalf of the three major party families, the EPP, S&D and Renew. The names – Ursula von der Leyen for the Commission, António Costa as Council President and Kaja Kallas as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs – are no longer controversial.
However, the procedure is causing unrest. The personnel package was not finalized at the summit as usual, but in a telephone conference beforehand. Not all 27 heads of state and government were involved, but only six – even though they spoke on behalf of an (expected) qualified majority.
This not only met with opposition from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, but also from Giorgia Meloni. The right-wing populist Italian head of government described the agreement as a “fireside chat” between a small group of politicians. She would also fight this “oligarchy” at EU level.
It will be interesting to see whether she backs up her pithy words with deeds and upsets the summit agenda. Council President Michel wants to call up the personnel package at dinner. Then things could get exciting once again.
They have every confidence in Charles Michel, says a high-ranking diplomat in the run-up to the summit, which takes place this Thursday and Friday. It is his answer to the question of whether the EU Council President could possibly have an interest in the discussion about the top posts being derailed at the second attempt.
It is striking that the choreography of this summit still seems unclear. What is certain so far is that the meeting will begin in the early afternoon with an appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The plan is for the heads of state and government to sign a security agreement with Ukraine, as a kind of superstructure for the national assurances. According to diplomats, Zelenskiy will report on the military situation. Another topic will be the use of the almost €1.5 billion from the windfall profits of the blocked Russian central bank funds.
A discussion on Georgia following the adoption of the pro-Russian agent law and the situation in the Middle East is also planned. Should the exchange get out of hand, it could be continued on Friday. The positions between the member states on the Middle East are still far apart, says a diplomat.
The dinner is reserved for the biggest items on the agenda, namely the decision on top jobs and the Strategic Agenda, the guidelines for the next legislative period. Ursula von der Leyen will also present options on how the EU could finance the strengthening of the arms industry and joint European defense projects in the future.
The exact course of the evening is still in flux, diplomats say. Will the negotiators of the three political groups present the consensus between the EPP, S&D and Renew to the round? This much is known: Ursula von der Leyen is to remain head of the Commission for another five years, the Liberals are to get the post of foreign affairs commissioner with Kaja Kallas from Estonia, while the Social Democrats can fill the EU Council presidency with António Costa for at least the next two and a half years. The package also includes a further two and a half years for Roberta Metsola as President of the EU Parliament.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is eagerly awaiting her response. She had expressed displeasure at the process behind the appointment of the top jobs. Will she repeat her criticism? And will she possibly receive support from one or more conservative heads of government?
Austria’s head of government Karl Nehammer, for example, was also dissatisfied with how the personnel package was put together in a small circle. However, only three to four member states were unhappy with the result, an EU diplomat clarified. We will soon see what the mood in the room is like.
A lot could depend on whether Charles Michel gives room for another debate or goes straight to the vote. The aim is to reach the broadest possible compromise, but a qualified majority is sufficient for the nominations, according to diplomats. But would it be a good start to simply outvote Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of the EU’s third-largest economy? Diplomats refused to confirm speculation that ways are being sought behind the scenes to include Meloni after all.
Ursula von der Leyen could also not make any concessions before the election in the EU Parliament, such as proposing a weighty economic dossier for Italy’s future EU Commissioner. Meloni faces a dilemma. She has gone so far out on a limb at home with her criticism that she cannot now vote for Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels without losing face.
There are also problems with the Strategic Agenda, which is supposed to be adopted at the summit as a guardrail for the next legislative period. According to diplomats, Hungary’s head of government Viktor Orbán has put forward new amendments that are said to be unacceptable to the majority. Diplomats complained on Wednesday that they had not yet received a new version from Charles Michel.
The Strategic Agenda with its new focus on security, defense and competitiveness must be unanimously agreed upon. Without agreement on the agenda for the next five years, the personnel package could also be in limbo. This is about the Commission’s mandate for the next five years. It is therefore quite possible that Charles Michel will first decide on the guidelines and only then vote on the top jobs.
Ursula von der Leyen tried to defuse a potential topic of contention at the dinner. The Commission President was supposed to present the heads of state and government with an options paper on how the EU’s ambitions in security and defense policy could be financially underpinned – this would effectively serve as a proposal for the implementation of the Strategic Agenda.
Ursula von der Leyen recently showed herself to be open to discussing new joint debts in addition to higher national contributions. The provocative word Eurobonds would certainly have been included in an options paper. Ursula von der Leyen will now only present various options verbally, possibly supplemented by a presentation. Expectations of the paper were high, said a high-ranking diplomat. Out of consideration for certain member states, Ursula von der Leyen had probably refrained from producing a written version.
Even if they usually argue a lot, the chancellor and opposition leader agreed on one point on Wednesday: Mark Rutte would make an excellent NATO Secretary General, said Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz almost word for word in the Bundestag. The agreement between the chancellor and the opposition leader shows how important they consider the defense alliance to be in times of war in Ukraine.
“Our common alliance has rarely been as important as it is today”, writes Scholz on X. Rutte’s security policy expertise and his diplomatic skills are in exactly the right place at the head of NATO. Rutte will officially take office on Oct. 1.
The German government should be able to live with the incumbent Dutch Prime Minister. Scholz knows Rutte from numerous EU summits. He is more of a transatlanticist than a Macron-European and, although he belongs to the liberal party family like Emmanuel Macron, he has not fully endorsed the French president’s calls for European strategic autonomy.
“Mark is a true transatlanticist, a strong leader and a man who creates consensus”, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about his designated successor after his formal appointment by the ambassadors of the 32 NATO states.
However, it could happen that Rutte will soon be more dependent on Berlin than expected. Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National may already be in government in France when he takes office. Shortly afterwards, Donald Trump could celebrate his comeback in the USA. That would be a severe test for the alliance.
Rutte only discovered his interest in security policy late in life. Critics accuse him of having ruined the Dutch armed forces during his time in office, which no longer have their own armored units.
After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO decided on the two percent target. However, Rutte’s coalition only met the target this year. When it comes to supporting Ukraine, Rutte has recently made a name for himself as part of a coalition that will provide Kyiv with F16 fighter jets. However, the Dutchman is said to have already decided to apply for the post of head of NATO.
Romeo Franz’s time in the European Parliament began in 2018, when the Green politician replaced his party colleague Jan Philipp Albrecht, who moved to the post of Minister for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment, Nature and Digitalization in Schleswig-Holstein. Franz stood for election in 2019 and returned to parliament. He will no longer be represented in the new parliament. He gave it a try, ran for a promising position on the list, but did not make it. Franz now wants to devote himself to national initiatives for equal rights for Sinti and Roma.
His path into politics is shaped by his origins. “Antiziganism has been with me for as long as I can remember”, he says. Negative experiences at school, problems finding a job and housing motivated the 57-year-old early on to stand up for the rights of Sinti and Roma in Germany. Initially in various NGOs, he then joined the Green Party in 2010. “I felt that I had hit a ceiling with my non-party work.”
He has been campaigning for the Romansh-speaking minority at European level since 2018. He is rarely satisfied. The umbrella term Roma alone, which is used in the EU’s dealings with the minority, highlights a major problem: “There is still a lack of recognition that we are talking about one of the largest, but also most heterogeneous minorities in Europe“, says Franz. Twelve to 15 million people belong to this group across Europe. This also includes the Kalderara in Romania and the Resande in Sweden.
During his five-year term in parliament, little has happened to improve the situation of the Romani-speaking minority. Franz describes the Roma Decade, which was launched in 2005, as a “miserable failure”, partly because it was based on voluntary action by the member states. Since 2019, he has been fighting to turn the efforts into law – without success.
Above all, however, the minority still faces severe inequality. In Eastern European countries in particular, some of the people live in forest areas without access to drinking water or sanitary facilities, and without any prospect of work. During visits on site, Franz noted “massive human rights violations”.
“The resistance in Parliament to an obligation for the member states is very strong, while interest in a change is low.” Although the current EU Roma Strategic Framework runs until 2030, Romeo Franz expects that the new Parliament will make it even more difficult to achieve a binding regulation for the member states.
Efforts from Germany, which Franz describes as “best practice examples”, show how things can be done differently. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, there has been a Council for Sinti and Roma Affairs since 2013, which is made up of equal numbers of Sinti and Roma and members of parliament. A state treaty also enshrines binding objectives, such as a greater focus on Sinti and Roma in educational institutions. “The approach has received extreme attention at European level.”
To learn something about dealing with national minorities, the government of Kosovo, for example, looked at the initiative, with which Romeo Franz has maintained a close relationship over the past five years. As head of the EU Parliament’s delegation to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, cooperation with Kosovo in particular has been “enormously successful”. During his time in office, he achieved visa-free travel for the local population, among other things.
The situation is different when dealing with accession candidate Bosnia-Herzegovina. In particular, the influence of Russia-friendly and EU-critical Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian-Serbian Republika Srpska, has turned the country into a “huge construction site” with which negotiations have been extremely difficult. Looking to the future, Franz has a clear opinion: “I don’t think it’s realistic for Bosnia to join the EU in the medium term, but I’m more optimistic about Kosovo.” Jasper Bennink
The new legislative period begins today with the first regular EU summit since the European elections. The 27 heads of state and government want to adopt a personnel package for the three top jobs in Brussels and a strategic agenda with the political priorities for the next five years.
However, this is proving more difficult than expected. On Wednesday, Council President Charles Michel was not yet able to present a finalized summit agenda. This is partly due to a special guest – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not want to reveal when he would be speaking for security reasons.
However, it is also due to the personnel package that Chancellor Olaf Scholz and five other EU leaders have put together on behalf of the three major party families, the EPP, S&D and Renew. The names – Ursula von der Leyen for the Commission, António Costa as Council President and Kaja Kallas as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs – are no longer controversial.
However, the procedure is causing unrest. The personnel package was not finalized at the summit as usual, but in a telephone conference beforehand. Not all 27 heads of state and government were involved, but only six – even though they spoke on behalf of an (expected) qualified majority.
This not only met with opposition from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, but also from Giorgia Meloni. The right-wing populist Italian head of government described the agreement as a “fireside chat” between a small group of politicians. She would also fight this “oligarchy” at EU level.
It will be interesting to see whether she backs up her pithy words with deeds and upsets the summit agenda. Council President Michel wants to call up the personnel package at dinner. Then things could get exciting once again.
They have every confidence in Charles Michel, says a high-ranking diplomat in the run-up to the summit, which takes place this Thursday and Friday. It is his answer to the question of whether the EU Council President could possibly have an interest in the discussion about the top posts being derailed at the second attempt.
It is striking that the choreography of this summit still seems unclear. What is certain so far is that the meeting will begin in the early afternoon with an appearance by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The plan is for the heads of state and government to sign a security agreement with Ukraine, as a kind of superstructure for the national assurances. According to diplomats, Zelenskiy will report on the military situation. Another topic will be the use of the almost €1.5 billion from the windfall profits of the blocked Russian central bank funds.
A discussion on Georgia following the adoption of the pro-Russian agent law and the situation in the Middle East is also planned. Should the exchange get out of hand, it could be continued on Friday. The positions between the member states on the Middle East are still far apart, says a diplomat.
The dinner is reserved for the biggest items on the agenda, namely the decision on top jobs and the Strategic Agenda, the guidelines for the next legislative period. Ursula von der Leyen will also present options on how the EU could finance the strengthening of the arms industry and joint European defense projects in the future.
The exact course of the evening is still in flux, diplomats say. Will the negotiators of the three political groups present the consensus between the EPP, S&D and Renew to the round? This much is known: Ursula von der Leyen is to remain head of the Commission for another five years, the Liberals are to get the post of foreign affairs commissioner with Kaja Kallas from Estonia, while the Social Democrats can fill the EU Council presidency with António Costa for at least the next two and a half years. The package also includes a further two and a half years for Roberta Metsola as President of the EU Parliament.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is eagerly awaiting her response. She had expressed displeasure at the process behind the appointment of the top jobs. Will she repeat her criticism? And will she possibly receive support from one or more conservative heads of government?
Austria’s head of government Karl Nehammer, for example, was also dissatisfied with how the personnel package was put together in a small circle. However, only three to four member states were unhappy with the result, an EU diplomat clarified. We will soon see what the mood in the room is like.
A lot could depend on whether Charles Michel gives room for another debate or goes straight to the vote. The aim is to reach the broadest possible compromise, but a qualified majority is sufficient for the nominations, according to diplomats. But would it be a good start to simply outvote Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of the EU’s third-largest economy? Diplomats refused to confirm speculation that ways are being sought behind the scenes to include Meloni after all.
Ursula von der Leyen could also not make any concessions before the election in the EU Parliament, such as proposing a weighty economic dossier for Italy’s future EU Commissioner. Meloni faces a dilemma. She has gone so far out on a limb at home with her criticism that she cannot now vote for Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels without losing face.
There are also problems with the Strategic Agenda, which is supposed to be adopted at the summit as a guardrail for the next legislative period. According to diplomats, Hungary’s head of government Viktor Orbán has put forward new amendments that are said to be unacceptable to the majority. Diplomats complained on Wednesday that they had not yet received a new version from Charles Michel.
The Strategic Agenda with its new focus on security, defense and competitiveness must be unanimously agreed upon. Without agreement on the agenda for the next five years, the personnel package could also be in limbo. This is about the Commission’s mandate for the next five years. It is therefore quite possible that Charles Michel will first decide on the guidelines and only then vote on the top jobs.
Ursula von der Leyen tried to defuse a potential topic of contention at the dinner. The Commission President was supposed to present the heads of state and government with an options paper on how the EU’s ambitions in security and defense policy could be financially underpinned – this would effectively serve as a proposal for the implementation of the Strategic Agenda.
Ursula von der Leyen recently showed herself to be open to discussing new joint debts in addition to higher national contributions. The provocative word Eurobonds would certainly have been included in an options paper. Ursula von der Leyen will now only present various options verbally, possibly supplemented by a presentation. Expectations of the paper were high, said a high-ranking diplomat. Out of consideration for certain member states, Ursula von der Leyen had probably refrained from producing a written version.
Even if they usually argue a lot, the chancellor and opposition leader agreed on one point on Wednesday: Mark Rutte would make an excellent NATO Secretary General, said Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz almost word for word in the Bundestag. The agreement between the chancellor and the opposition leader shows how important they consider the defense alliance to be in times of war in Ukraine.
“Our common alliance has rarely been as important as it is today”, writes Scholz on X. Rutte’s security policy expertise and his diplomatic skills are in exactly the right place at the head of NATO. Rutte will officially take office on Oct. 1.
The German government should be able to live with the incumbent Dutch Prime Minister. Scholz knows Rutte from numerous EU summits. He is more of a transatlanticist than a Macron-European and, although he belongs to the liberal party family like Emmanuel Macron, he has not fully endorsed the French president’s calls for European strategic autonomy.
“Mark is a true transatlanticist, a strong leader and a man who creates consensus”, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about his designated successor after his formal appointment by the ambassadors of the 32 NATO states.
However, it could happen that Rutte will soon be more dependent on Berlin than expected. Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National may already be in government in France when he takes office. Shortly afterwards, Donald Trump could celebrate his comeback in the USA. That would be a severe test for the alliance.
Rutte only discovered his interest in security policy late in life. Critics accuse him of having ruined the Dutch armed forces during his time in office, which no longer have their own armored units.
After the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO decided on the two percent target. However, Rutte’s coalition only met the target this year. When it comes to supporting Ukraine, Rutte has recently made a name for himself as part of a coalition that will provide Kyiv with F16 fighter jets. However, the Dutchman is said to have already decided to apply for the post of head of NATO.
Romeo Franz’s time in the European Parliament began in 2018, when the Green politician replaced his party colleague Jan Philipp Albrecht, who moved to the post of Minister for Energy Transition, Agriculture, Environment, Nature and Digitalization in Schleswig-Holstein. Franz stood for election in 2019 and returned to parliament. He will no longer be represented in the new parliament. He gave it a try, ran for a promising position on the list, but did not make it. Franz now wants to devote himself to national initiatives for equal rights for Sinti and Roma.
His path into politics is shaped by his origins. “Antiziganism has been with me for as long as I can remember”, he says. Negative experiences at school, problems finding a job and housing motivated the 57-year-old early on to stand up for the rights of Sinti and Roma in Germany. Initially in various NGOs, he then joined the Green Party in 2010. “I felt that I had hit a ceiling with my non-party work.”
He has been campaigning for the Romansh-speaking minority at European level since 2018. He is rarely satisfied. The umbrella term Roma alone, which is used in the EU’s dealings with the minority, highlights a major problem: “There is still a lack of recognition that we are talking about one of the largest, but also most heterogeneous minorities in Europe“, says Franz. Twelve to 15 million people belong to this group across Europe. This also includes the Kalderara in Romania and the Resande in Sweden.
During his five-year term in parliament, little has happened to improve the situation of the Romani-speaking minority. Franz describes the Roma Decade, which was launched in 2005, as a “miserable failure”, partly because it was based on voluntary action by the member states. Since 2019, he has been fighting to turn the efforts into law – without success.
Above all, however, the minority still faces severe inequality. In Eastern European countries in particular, some of the people live in forest areas without access to drinking water or sanitary facilities, and without any prospect of work. During visits on site, Franz noted “massive human rights violations”.
“The resistance in Parliament to an obligation for the member states is very strong, while interest in a change is low.” Although the current EU Roma Strategic Framework runs until 2030, Romeo Franz expects that the new Parliament will make it even more difficult to achieve a binding regulation for the member states.
Efforts from Germany, which Franz describes as “best practice examples”, show how things can be done differently. In Baden-Württemberg, for example, there has been a Council for Sinti and Roma Affairs since 2013, which is made up of equal numbers of Sinti and Roma and members of parliament. A state treaty also enshrines binding objectives, such as a greater focus on Sinti and Roma in educational institutions. “The approach has received extreme attention at European level.”
To learn something about dealing with national minorities, the government of Kosovo, for example, looked at the initiative, with which Romeo Franz has maintained a close relationship over the past five years. As head of the EU Parliament’s delegation to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, cooperation with Kosovo in particular has been “enormously successful”. During his time in office, he achieved visa-free travel for the local population, among other things.
The situation is different when dealing with accession candidate Bosnia-Herzegovina. In particular, the influence of Russia-friendly and EU-critical Milorad Dodik, President of the Bosnian-Serbian Republika Srpska, has turned the country into a “huge construction site” with which negotiations have been extremely difficult. Looking to the future, Franz has a clear opinion: “I don’t think it’s realistic for Bosnia to join the EU in the medium term, but I’m more optimistic about Kosovo.” Jasper Bennink
