EU elects leaders to steer bloc for upcoming 5 years

By Selen Valente Rasquinho and Melike Pala

BRUSSELS (AA) - At the summit held in Brussels on Thursday after the European Parliament (EP) elections, the names to lead the EU for the next five years were announced.

The EU leaders elected Antonio Costa as the president of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen as the president of the European Commission and the outgoing Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

- Antonio Costa

Starting his career as a lawyer, Costa was elected as an MP from Portugal's Socialist Party in 1991. He was appointed minister for parliamentary affairs in 1997.

Costa served as minister for justice from 1999 to 2002 and chaired the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group between 2002 and 2004.

Costa's EU career began in 2004. He became an MEP from the Socialist Party and served as EP Vice-President in 2004-2005.

Then, Costa was appointed as Portugal's minister of home affairs, prior to being elected as mayor of Lisbon in 2007, 2009 and 2013. He also served as a member of the European Committee of the Regions from 2010 to 2015.

Costa ran as the leader of the Socialist Party in the 2015 legislative elections but lost. Nevertheless, Costa formed an alliance with the left-wing opposition parties and led a coalition government, becoming prime minister for the first time.

Costa served as Portugal's prime minister from November 2015 until July 2023, when he resigned due to an investigation against him in connection with allegations of corruption in public tenders related to lithium and green hydrogen.

Costa's election as European Council President surprised some quarters, given the ongoing investigations against him.

Costa will chair the council, the decision-making body made up of the leaders of EU member states, and will host summits to determine the EU's overall political direction and priorities.

- Ursula von der Leyen

Von Der Leyen's political career began in 1990 when she joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party, becoming a member of the Lower Saxony Parliament and holding various ministerial positions in the state government.

In 2005, von der Leyen started to partake in the federal government when she was appointed as minister for family affairs and youth in the Cabinet of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Then, she served as minister for labor and social affairs from 2009 to 2013.

Von der Leyen became Germany's first female defense minister in 2013, a position she held until 2019.

Her journey to become president of the European Commission began with her nomination in July 2019. The experienced politician on Dec. 1, 2019 became the first woman to be elected president of the commission, with the support of the majority of the EP and EU leaders.

She was criticized for the EU's first vaccine procurement process and distribution delays during the COVID-19 pandemic, and her push for ambitious climate policies faced opposition from some member states and far-right parties concerned about their economic impact.

Von der Leyen's stance and her pro-Israel stance following Israel's attacks on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 sparked reactions from Europeans as well as within the EU administration and the EP.

As one of the first leaders to pay a visit of support to Israel at the outset of the attacks, von der Leyen's statements emphasizing "Israel's right to defend itself" despite civilian casualties were seen as a deviation from the EU's traditionally balanced Israel-Palestine policy.

Von der Leyen's stance sparked accusations of bias and insensitivity to the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian civilians.

Israel's attacks have killed at least 37,834 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and injured more than 86,800 others, according to local health authorities.

Von der Leyen will head the commission, the EU's executive body, which will initiate the legislative process by proposing laws, implement the acquis and the budget, and conduct administrative oversight.

- Kaja Kallas

Kallas, who will serve as the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy for five years, is also the first female prime minister of Estonia.

The daughter of former Estonian Prime Minister and EU Commissioner Siim Kallas, Kallas decided to follow in her father's footsteps by quitting her job as a lawyer and entered the Estonian Parliament in 2011 as a member of the liberal Reform Party.

She served in the EP from 2014 to 2018.

Kallas returned to her home country in 2019 and became an MP again, and was elected prime minister in the 2021 elections.

The Russian-Ukrainian war, which erupted when she had been prime minister for only one year, was the turning point in Kallas' career.

Kallas, who has been prominent with her anti-Russian rhetoric since she took office before the war, has come to be known as Europe's new "iron lady."

Urging for unconditional support to Ukraine as well as expressing tougher stance against Russia, she became a target of the Kremlin. Russia put Kallas on its wanted list in February 2024.

Kallas, who was mentioned as NATO's new secretary-general in the following months, expressed her interest in this position, but the idea that a leader on Russia's wanted list would further strain relations prevailed.

Kallas, the new high representative of the EU, is the first Eastern European politician to hold this position. She will also be the first Estonian politician to hold a top position in the EU administration.

Kallas will be in charge of the Union's foreign and security policy and will also serve as vice president of the European Commission.

*Writing by Serdar Dincel from Istanbul