BRUSSELS — European Union leaders signed off on a trio of top appointments for their shared political institutions on Thursday, reinstalling German conservative Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission for another five years.
Both von der Leyen and Kallas should now be approved by European lawmakers. Costa’s nomination only needed the leaders’ approval, and he will start in his new role in fall. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made clear her displeasure at being excluded from preparatory talks with a small group of leaders who divvied up the top jobs. Her nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists group emerged as the third force in the European Parliament elections this month.
“European voters were cheated,” he said on Facebook Thursday evening. “We do not support this shameful agreement!” His objections were moot: the package only needed a two-thirds majority to pass. EU top appointments are supposed to ensure geographic and ideological balance, but ultimately it is the 27 leaders who call the shots - and generally the most powerful among them.