European Commission / PODCAST

EU leaders agree on top jobs, but will it stick?

After a marathon Council meeting, EU leaders finally settled on a new leadership team for the bloc, picking German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as president of the Council, IMF’s Christine Lagarde as president of the ECB, and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as the new High Representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

In this episode, EPC Director of Studies Janis A. Emmanouilidis lifts the curtain on what was going on behind closed doors at the summit and explains how von der Leyen became the Commission president candidate everyone could get behind (sort of). He also covers what this means for the Spitzenkandidaten process, lessons learnt (introduce transnational lists, pick your Spitzenkandidat carefully, and Parliament, take the initiative!), and what will happen next.

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